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HISTORY OF 
THE HOUSE OF 



P. & F. CO RBI N 




THE visible exponents of a commercial institution like that 
of P. & F. Corbin are the men who conduct it, the 
buildings that afford it a home, and the goods which it 
produces and which furnish the reason for its existence. 

Its history naturally consists in the relation of the events in 
which these factors appear conjointly and the circumstances which 
affect them. It is this which the following pages attempt to set forth. 

In writing the story the greatest difficulty has been to obey 
the injunction to keep in the background the personality of the 
men who have made the business. I have done all that I could 
in this direction, even to the extent of suppressing some occur- 
rences that have had an important bearing upon the prosperity of 
the company and of minimizing the part in its growth and devel- 
opment taken by one or two of the persons who are still actively 
engaged in its affairs. 

Yet, I trust that those who read can find between the lines 
that which I have not been permitted to write, and will be able to 
clothe the plain recital of facts and description of goods with 
somewhat of the living forces and personalities that have made the 
narrative possible. 

J. B. COMSTOCK. 




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TITLE 



H I STORY OF 
THE HOUSE OF 
P. & F. CORBIN 




ILLUSTRATED- INCLUDING PORTRAITS 
OF MEN NOTABLY IDENTIFIED WITH 
THE GROWTH OF THE HOUSE 

ISSUED IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 
FIFTIETH yINNIVERSARY OF THE 
FOUNDING OF THE HOUSE ON THE 
FOURTEENTH DAY OF FEBRUARY 
IN THE YEAR EIGHTEEN 
HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR 



i ''» ,V 



Copyrighted, 1904, by 
P. & F. CORBIN 






O 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Tw® Copies Received 

FEB 13 1904 

Copyright Entry 
"CLASS '^ XXc. No. 

1 "^c^pJsT 



Text by 
John B. Comstock. 

Compiled by 
George C. Atwell. 

Designed, Engraved, and Printed by 

THE 

MATTHEWS-NORTHRUP 

WORKS 

BUrUUX).ANDtlE«m>IlK 



C < C t I C 



c c 



•#• ••• • 




C O N T E N T S 

Frontispiece Allegory, Fifty Years of Progress, page four 

Author's Preface, page five 

Present Plant and Annexes, page six 

Title, page seven 

Copyright and Authorship, page eight 

Contents, page nine 

Illustrations, page ten 

Early New Britain, pages eleven and twelve 

Portrait of Philip Corbin, page fourteen 

Founder and Head of the House of Corbin, pages fifteen to twenty-two 

Doen, Corbin & Company, pages twenty-three to twenty-six 

Corbin, Whiting & Company, pages twenty-seven to thirty 

P. & F. Corbin — Copartnership, pages thirty-one to thirty-three 

P. & F. Corbin — Corporation, pages thirty-five to ninety-three 

P. & F. Corbin of New York, page ninety-five 

P. & F. Corbin, Philadelphia, page ninety-seven 

P. & F. Corbin, Chicago, . page ninety-nine 

The American Hardware Corporation, Official Personnel, page one hundred 

P. & F. Corbin, Ofiicial Personnel, page one hundred and one 

Russell & Erwin Manufacturing Co., Official Personnel, page one hundred and two 

The Corbin Screw Corporation, Official Personnel, page one hundred -and three 

Corbin Cabinet Lock Co., Official Personnel, page one hundred and four 

The Corbin Motor Vehicle Corporation, Official Personnel, .... page one hundred and five 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Fifty Years of Progress, page four 

Present Plant and Annexes, page six 

Early New Britain, page eleven 

Portrait of Philip Corbin, page fourteen 

Philip Corbin Hewing Timber, page sixteen 

Philip Corbin in Bucknell's Shop, page eighteen 

Philip Corbin at Various Ages, page nineteen 

Frank Corbin, ■ . . page twenty-three 

Ox Balls — Yoke of Oxen, pages twenty-four and twenty-five 

Lifting Handles, etc., page twenty-six 

William Corbin, page twenty-eight 

John M. Spring, . . page twenty-nine 

George S. Corbin, page thirty-two 

Waldo Corbin, page thirty-three 

The Growth of the Plant, page thirty-four 

Brass Butts, page thirty-seven 

First Catalogue, issued 1852, . . page thirty-eight 

Portrait of Andrew Corbin, page forty 

Stephen J. Arnold, page forty-two 

Charles Peck, page forty-four 

Employees for More Than Thirty-five Years, pages forty-six and forty-seven 

Portrait of Charles H. Parsons, page fifty 

First Lock List, 1869, page fifty-four 

Designer at Work — Modeling, pages fifty-six and fifty-seven 

Chaser at Work — Pattern Maker, pages fifty-eight and fifty-nine 

Portrait of Charles E. Wetmore, page sixty-two 

Catalogues, 18 70- 18 80, page sixty-four 

George W. Corbin, page sixty-six 

Portrait of A. N. Abbe, . ' page sixty-eight 

Department Managers, page seventy 

Ofiices, pages seventy-two and seventy-three 

Molders at Work, page seventy-four 

Brass Molder Pouring, page seventy-six 

Electroplater, page seventy-seven 

Salesmen, page seventy-eight 

Byron Phelps, page eighty 

Portrait of Charles M. Jarvis, page eighty-two 

Building Operations, page eighty-three 

Locksmith at Work, page eighty-four 

Assembler — Grinding and Polishing, page eighty-five 

Packing Goods, page eighty-six 

Portrait of Charles Glover, page eighty-eight 

Shipping Goods, page ninety 

Art Hardware, page ninety-two 

New York Salesmen, - page ninety-four 

Philadelphia Salesmen, ' . page ninety-six 

Chicago Salesmen, page ninety-eight 

The Day's Work Done, page one hundred and six 

10 



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O 



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EARLY N E A\' P. I^ I I' A I N F R n M A N ii i, i) PRINT 



THE HOME OF THE CORBIN INDUSTRIES 



NEW Britain, Connecticut, known as "The Hardware City," where the 
factories and general offices of P. & F. Corbin are located, was 
originally a part of the town of Farmington. In 1705, its people 
ceased to go there for worship, a new society having been formed nearer to it 
called the Great Swamp Society. In 1754, it gained a church of its own. 
In 1785, it severed its civil connection with Farmington and formed a part of 
the town of Berlin, incorporated at that time. In 1850, the town and borough 
of New Britain were incorporated. In 1870, the city was incorporated, and in 
1900 it stood, on the census list, the 125th in size in the country. In 1754, 
its total population was about 300; in 1800, 946; in 18 10, 982; in 1820, 
1,000; in 1850,3,029; in i860, 5,385; in 1880, 13,977; in 1889, 18,500; 
in 1900, 28,202. To-day there are about 38,000 people within the city 
limits and supported by its industries, the growth of which may be fairly 
measured by the increase in the number of the city's inhabitants. 

In 1849, ^t the time the history of P. & F. Corbin begins. New Britain 
contained less than 3,000 inhabitants and the character of the town as a manu- 
facturing center was fairly well outlined. When the tax assessment list was 
made out in 1851 there were sixty-eight mercantile firms, mostly manufacturers, 
of which twenty-three were assessed as having invested two thousand dollars or 
more. There was always a rivalry between the concerns whose businesses were 
in any degree similar, which increased with the passage of years, and if it at times 



1 1 



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caused no small amount of bitterness it had a reflex action for good in that it 
kept all concerned keenly alive to the necessity of embracing every opportunity 
for improvement in goods and methods. As new comers, P. & F. Corbin had 
the greatest amount of opposition to overcome, and the lives of those who car- 
ried the burden in the early days were made the sterner and straiter, and each 
departure was probably more carefully considered and more thoroughly devel- 
oped than would otherwise have been the case — and the foundation of the 
present business was, consequently, all the more firmly and surely laid. 

The enterprises were small, as we should now consider them. The heads 
of the houses took off their coats and lent a hand wherever it was needed. The 
doors of the factories were as open to all comers as is the door to the black- 
smith's shop to-day. Life was less complex and if interests were less divided 
they were pursued with a greater intensity of purpose. 




12 




PHILIP COKKIN, 
PRESIDENT 





lON. Philip Corbin, the founder of the commercial 
house of Corbin and its active manager and head 
from the inception to the present time, was born 
at Willington, Conn., on October 26, 1824, and 
spent there the first seven years of his life. The 
family is an old one, tracing the line back to 
Robert Corbin of Normandy. An ancestor, Geof- 
rey Corbin, 11 94, is mentioned in English history 
as is his descendant, Walter Corbin, 1272. In the 
American branch, the line traces back to Clement 
Corbin or Corbyn of Roxbury, Mass.; to his son John Corbin, who rendered 
valuable service in King Philip's war in 1675; ^^ ^^^ ^^^ James, born in 
Roxbury in 1667, and one of the proprietors and original settlers of Woodstock 
in 1686; to his son Lemuel, born at Woodstock and afterwards a resident of 
Dudley, where he was tithing man in 1739, and constable in 1746; to his son 
Philip, a man of power and a prominent citizen of Dudley, being made succes- 
sively constable, captain, selectman, and representative; to his son Philip, 
Junior, born at Union and afterward a resident of Willington, where his son 
Philip, the third of the name in direct succession and the founder of the Corbin 
industries, was born. He was the third of ten children, eight of whom were boys. 
It is worthy of note that from the earliest known records of the family it has 
contained men of character, setting their impress upon the time in which they 
lived and leaving records of public and private service in the archives of church 
and state. Forceful, energetic, masterful, many of them of more than ordinary 
physical and mental ability, they transmitted their family characteristics to their 

15 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE HOUSE OF 



& 



C O R B I N 



descendants as the histories of their hves testifiprl Pl.;i- n u- 

bo. wi,h . ™„„ f pk,,,., , j;'„'T:f t<,„S „^Sm": i; 

. ded h.m ,„ h,s work. The fac. th., he „„ forced b. the sMs, of Scum 

Hartford, whence they went to Ell nCn' A !/ T. 'T °" ' ^'™ '" ^''' 
Hartfnt-rl fr^ .!,» u u ^J'lngton. A year later they returned to West 

Hartford to the old homestead, now known as Corbin's Corners 
still m he possession of the family, where Philip's father - 

du^ \*' '/ ^ ' ' ^"d where his two sisters now reside 

^XT rT " "^r ^""""''y ^°' ^^^ ^*^^°"d time moved to 
West Hartford, Philip was a strong lad of fifteen 
able to do a man's work, and from this time until 
he reached the age of nineteen the most of his 
time was spent in farm work away from home 
his wages being paid to his father, as was then 
the general custom with minors. 

In addition to the education received at the 
district school, he had the benefit of a term and 
a half at the West Hartford academy. Consid- 
ering his advantages, he was well informed. In- 
deed, at one time in this period, he had agreed 
to teach a school in the Stanley Quarter of New 
Britain, for ten dollars per month, but Augustus 
Stanley induced his kinsman, Noah Stanley the 

selectman who had the matter in charge, to give 

the school to a distant relative named Carter 

who offered to do the work for two dollars per 

month less. In the autumn of the same year 

his father contracted to cut one hundred and 

fifty cords of wood, relying upon four of the .»^" 

i6 




I 



< 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

Philip who set the pace and, as is usual with leaders, performed the greatest 
portion of the work. Axes are heavy in boyish hands, and it is easy to let an 
ambitious worker have a clear field for his efforts. It was Philip who finished 
the job alone. At this time, at the age of nineteen, he cut two cords of two- 
foot wood for a day's work, receiving therefor forty-five cents per cord. 

A man named Rowley passed the house one day while Philip was at work 
in the yard and strongly advised him to follow his example and secure a place 
in one of the New Britain hardware factories, saying that he could earn more 
money. The idea appeared to the young man to be a good one, and the 
longer he pondered upon it the better it seemed. It did not, however, meet 
with the same favor from his father, who refused to give it any consideration, 
saying that he had made arrangements for Philip to work for a farmer, a Mr. 
Elmer, at fifteen dollars per month, to lead his men. The leader of a gang of 
men ruled by example, and to hold his position must keep well ahead of his 
fellows — a task that might well dismay a boy of nineteen expected to outstrip 
six or seven men older than he and eager for the prestige to be gained by beat- 
ing the leader. The father was anxious that Philip should take the place, for 
the wages were higher than those paid the regular farm hand, who got about 
twelve dollars per month, but Philip, fired by his new ambition and unwilling 
to assume the work which he felt was too hard for him, insisted so strongly 
upon having his way that the father finally gave a reluctant consent; and Philip 
went to New Britain to make a trial at the new work. 

On the 1 8th of March, 1844, Philip Corbin began work in the shops of 
Matteson, Russell & Co. (afterwards Russell & Erwin), for a contractor by the 
name of Charles Burt, receiving fourteen dollars per month, out of which he 
must pay his board, and send the balance to aid in the support of the family. 
To add to his earnings he did whatever work he could find to do outside of 
the regular hours of labor ; among other things, sweeping out the entire factory 
once a week for fifty cents. Mr. Burt released him for half a day each week 
in order to do the sweeping, and Philip put in more than enough overtime to 
offset the hours thus lost from his regular duties. 

Three of the boys, Hezekiah, Waldo, and Frank, followed Philip's example, 
and secured work in the New Britain shops, but in the following July the boys 
were called home to do the haying. So eager were they to get the work done 
and to earn money in order that they might continue in their new work, that 
they put in every moment of daylight in the hay field and finished in two 
weeks what ordinarily required twice as long. For the remainder of the season, 

17 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



HOUSE 



O F 



P . 



& 



C O R B I N 



some eight weeks, Philip worked for other farmers, receiving $1.50 per day, 
and thus giving his father as much money as though he had continued in farm 
work; consequently, there was no serious objection made when he went back 
to his work in New Britain. 

In the fall of 1844, therefore, Philip Corbin returned to New Britain 
and went to work for Henry Andrews, who had a contract to make locks 
for North & Stanley, receiving nineteen dollars per month for his services. 
At this time his knowledge of lock making was slight, and his work 
for Mr. Andrews upon locks was of a general character, requiring 
no particular skill; but the same spirit that had made 
him sought as a leader among the men on the 
farms caused him to desire to excel in his new 
field, and he improved such opportunities as were 
presented for learning the art of lock making as 
then practiced. There were in those days no 
cast locks, these articles being made 
throughout of wrought metal, and very 
largely by hand, the use of machinery 
f being then but imperfectly developed. 

To make a lock required the deft use 
of hand tools, some natural ability and a 
much more thorough knowledge of lock- 
ing mechanism than is required by the ordinary 
lock-fitter of to-day, and to become a good 
lock maker was to be a skilled workman 
— a leader among his fellows. 

In the North & Stanley shops there 
was a lock contractor by the name of 
Bucknell, who was in the habit of 
working in the evening, getting every- 
thing ready for his men to begin in the 
morning without loss of time. Philip Corbin, anxious to learn, frequently 
spent the evening in the old gentleman's department, helping him in his work. 
Mr. Bucknell, finding Philip's services of value, offered to pay him for. what he 
did, but Philip declined to take money, saying that if he could learn to make 
locks he would feel repaid. Finding him thus eager to learn, Mr. Bucknell 
took pains to teach him, and in sixty days he not only could make a good lock. 




HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBI 



N 




but in his association oSljjf / 
had undoubtedly un- l!M/i 
a knowledge of the ykh 
workmen necessary to Vl 
By this time, the sea- ^ 
contracts was near at hand ' 
gested that Philip make a 
contract for himself. To th 
North & Stanley knew no 



consciously absorbed 
management of the 
produce the best results, 
son for the letting of new 
and Mr. Buck n ell sug- 
bid and endeavor to secure a 
ilip objected, saying that 
is ability as a lockmaker and 
would not give a contract to him, a "green country boy," as he put it. 

"Put in your bid," said Mr. Bucknell, "and when they come to you just 
refer them to me." 

So it was decided that Philip should enter a bid for a contract to make plate 
locks — a lock set into a wooden case or back cut out to receive it. On the 
morning that the bids were -opened, Mr. Henry Stanley entered the shop and 
approaching Philip, whom he only knew as a workman in his establishment, said: 

19 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

"Young man, what do you know about lock making?" 

"Ask Mr. Bucknell," was Philip's reply. 

Mr. Bucknell's report was so satisfactory that Philip Corbin was awarded 
the contract and began his career as a lock maker and employer of labor. It 
was unprecedented for a young man of twenty to hold such a place, but the 
work was done so satisfactorily that the contract was awarded him the second 
year without any question being raised regarding his ability to fulfill it. 

At this time, Philip's brother, Frank, then seventeen years of age, came to 
New Britain and was received into partnership on the second contract. The 
two brothers continued in partnership, working under a contract for North & 
Stanley until May 8, 1849. Until he attained his majority, Philip sent home 
all his earnings except the portion required for his support, the amount being 
considerably in excess of anything that could have been realized as a farm hand.- 
In the last year of his minority he gave his father fully a thousand dollars, a 
larger sum than the figures would represent to-day. Before he was twenty-one 
years old he had nineteen men in his employ and at the close of his last 
contract his force had grown to thirty or thirty-five. 

The North & Stanley shop was operated by power derived from a brook 
running through the town not far from the present Corbin factories, all trace of 
which has entirely disappeared. In dry seasons the water failed to turn the 
machinery ; in freshets or times of plentiful rain there was more power than was 
needed, and at such times it was customary to crowd the work to the fullest 
extent. The work which took the greatest amount of power was grinding off 
on emery wheels the protruding ends of the strips of iron which formed the two 
sides of the locks, and in the times when there was plenty of water this work 
was urged as much as possible. The Mr. Bucknell who gave Philip Corbin 
encouragement to take his first contract was now an old man, and finally had 
let his men go, being content to turn out only such locks as he himself could 
make. During one dry spell he had accumulated a large number of locks, the 
cases of which needed grinding, and when the succeeding heavy rains came, with 
the necessity for taking prompt advantage of the power, he had more grinding 
to do than he could accomplish. Philip, knowing the old gentleman's quandary, 
quietly set a number of wheels one afternoon and by working nearly all of that 
night finished the entire lot. When Mr. Bucknell came in the next morning he 
found the work done, much to his surprise and gratification, which was in nowise 
lessened when he learned that it was done without charge, as an expression of 
appreciation of past kindnesses, which Philip had thus endeavored to repay. 

20 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

Philip Corbin's interest in the welfare of his employers did not stop with 
the limits of his contract, and he was sorely tried by what seemed to him the 
failure to take advantage of opportunities for improvement. North & Stanley 
I had a pattern maker named Cook, whose work was of an inferior order ; the local 
competitor had a fine pattern maker whose name was Pye, and whose work ex- 
cited Philip Corbin's admiration. He found that Pye could be induced to 
transfer his services to North & Stanley and strongly urged Mr. Stanley to 
hire him, making some very severe criticisms of Cook's work to support his 
argument, one being that "he could mold a cat in the sand and draw her by 
the tail and make a better casting than he could with Cook's patterns." This 
was repeated to Cook and caused a coolness that was unpleasant, since Cook 
worked at the bench next to him. 

At another time, he strongly advocated the purchase of an improved key 
machine, pressing the matter so vigorously as to draw forth a severe rebuff; and 
awakening him to the fact that no reform or material improvement was possible 
under the prevailing conditions, he at once began to plan for a change that 
would give him a larger measure of freedom in the execution of his ideas, and 
the inauguration of a new business under his own management was the logical 
result. 

In June of 1848, he disposed of an undivided one-half interest in what- 
ever of good and evil the future might hold for him by marrying Francina T. 
Whiting. She, like her husband, had been reared upon a farm and had the thor- 
ough domestic training such a home gives. The two young people faced together 
the trials and problems attending the starting of a new business and to her cour- 
age and devotion, her assistance and support, Mr. Corbin ascribes much of the 
success of the enterprise in its formative period. 

The history of PhiHp Corbin's life from this time on is practically that of 
P. & F. Corbin. Throughout its entire existence he has had the active man- 
agement of its affairs, just as he has it to-day. He has followed in his career 
the principle of placing P. & F. Corbin's interests above others that might 
conflict with them, and the position which the house of Corbin has attained in 
its field is a testimonial of his business judgment and sagacity, and of what may 
be achieved by a half century of advancement with a consistent, persistent, 
unchanging policy under the direction of one man. 

Mr. Corbin has other interests which he has assumed from time to time, 
when his doing so would not interfere with the demands made upon him by 
P. & F. Corbin. A list of the oflices he occupies will best demonstrate the 

21 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



HOUSE 



O F 



& 



C O R B I N 



variety and scope of his activities. He is president of P. & F. Corbin, the 
American Hardware Corporation, the Corbin Cabinet Lock Company, the New 
Britain Machine Company, and the Porter & Dyson Company, all of New 
Britain; vice-president of the New Britain Savings Bank; a director of the 
Hartford National Bank of Hartford, Conn., the Mechanics National Bank of 
New Britain, and the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Co. of 
Hartford. He has always been identified with church work, and for a number 
of years has been chairman of the Society's Committee of the South Congre- 
gational Church of New Britain. He is found identified with and giving cordial 
support to the various plans for advancing the welfare of the community mor- 
ally, socially, politically, and commercially. 

A Whig in early life, he identified himself with the Republican party upon 
its organization, and has always taken a keen interest in civic affairs. He 
served as warden of the borough before the incorporation of New Britain as a 
town; also as a member of the city council; subsequently, as water commissioner, 
he supervised the enlargement of the system that has given the city its splendid 
water supply. He was elected to the state legislature in 1884, and in 1888 
was made a member of the state senate. 




22 




I 



N THE summer of 1848, Philip Corbin 
had fully determined that he must find 
employment elsewhere, and he and his 
brother Frank, after canvassing the matter fully, 
took into their counsel a brass founder by the 
name of Edward Doen, a good workman, and 
skilled in all branches of his trade. After much 
planning it was decided to form a copartnership 
under the above caption and go into business 
for themselves. Each of the three men could 
furnish three hundred dollars, making a joint 
capital of nine hundred dollars, barely sufficient 
to equip a small — a very small — shop. 

Land was procured in the eastern part of 
the town from Mr. Samuel Kelsey (a grand- 
father of Mrs. Philip Corbin and universally 
known as "Squire" Kelsey), and a contract was 
made with Mr. Henry W. Whiting for a two- 
story frame factory building, with stone founda- 
tion, and with a cellar extending under the entire building, the price for land 
and building being about six hundred dollars. In October, the cellar was 
dug and the wall was built, and Philip Corbin spent Thanksgiving Day in 
1848 in banking the foundation to protect it from the winter frosts. In the 
following spring, the building was erected. A horse-power tread-mill which 
had seen some use had been contracted for in the fall before and was now 
installed in the cellar, and connected with the machinery, consisting of a 
grindstone, an emery wheel, and two lathes; a big black horse was bought to 
turn the machinery ; two furnaces for casting ( another was added a little later, 
when a small building was erected in the yard for a foundry) were built in the 

23 




FRANK CnRBIN 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



HOUSE 



O F 



P . 



& 



C O R B I N 



little lean-to in the rear, and by May of 1 849 the plant was ready for operations. 
Everything was paid for in cash, and the three partners stepped into their estab- 
lishment with a factory free from incumbrance and a cash balance of somewhat 
less than two hundred dollars — with which to buy metal and conduct the business. 

It was very evident that money must come in quickly if the new concern 
was to keep afloat, and to do this goods must be marketed as soon as possible. 
Ox balls for tipping the horns of cattle were in demand, and the partners had 
invented a new pattern or style which was an improvement on anything then 
made. A hardware merchant from an Ohio town, who was visiting a friend in 
Farmington, was shown one of these and at once gave a good order for them. 
July 4, 1849, was celebrated by Doen, Corbin & Co. by the shipment of their 
first bill of goods, completing the Ohio merchant's order, amounting to between 
two and three hundred dollars. 

When the new factory was ready to begin business, on the first of May in 
1849, ^^- Philip Corbin had in personal 
funds just eighteen dollars. This he put 
in the little drawer on the top of the 
bureau, locked it, hung the key on 
the standard at one side of the mir- 
ror, and told his wife that that 
was all the money he had; that 
he did not want to draw any 
money out of the business so long 
as it could be avoided, and that 
they would see how far the 
amount on hand could be 
made to go. It 






ox BALLS 



lasted for twenty months, during which time Mrs. Corbin with her own hands 
earned over one hundred dollars packing goods in the shop, which went towards 

24 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



HOUSE 



O F 



P . 



& 



F . C O R B I N 



paying the general living expenses. They had no rent to pay; both of the 
young people had sufficient good clothing from their wedding outfits, and the 
money paid by two boarders supplied the table, with the aid of a garden, a cow, 
chickens, and a pig. For pleasure they had their companionship with each 

other and their 
friends and their 
interest in the 
business. They 




were well, and 



their simple, 
steadfast lives 
kept them so, and 
the hopes for the 
future, now so 
abundantly real- 
ized, meant more 
to them than any 
of the annoyances 

of the present — if indeed they gave them any consideration or suffered them 
to have any weight. 

The three partners worked hard. Mr. Doen was an excellent and accurate 
workman, but not especially rapid in his movements, so the two brothers did 
the most of the productive work, leaving the other work for him. Philip Corbin, 
used to the long hours of a farm day, was wont to begin work at daylight or 
before — often as early as three o'clock — and by the time his helpers were ready 
for the day he had accomplished a goodly amount of work and had matters in 
shape for them to begin. A man named Samuel Goodrich was their first 
employee, and two boys were hired later to help in the foundry. 

At the end of four months Mr. Doen grew dissatisfied. Illy-advised 
people persuaded him that without an engine to drive the machinery there was 
little chance of success. The disinclination of the Corbin brothers to assume a 
debt of six hundred dollars for a portable Baxter engine (which was in those 
days considered with favor and was a pioneer in its field) was the rock upon 
which the partnership split, and on September i, 1849, Edward Doen sold his 
interest to Mr. Whiting, Mrs. Corbin's father, receiving in payment his three 
hundred dollars, with six per cent, interest for the time invested, and $1.50 per 
day for his time. This was good wages in those days. 

25 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



HOUSE 



O F 



& 



C O R B I N 




At the prices for labor which formed the 

basis upon which the cost of the goods was 

figured, an ordinary brass founder could make 

1.50 per day, and a very good man could make 

2.00. Philip Corbin, however, by hiring two 

boys to help him at a wage of 75 cents per day 

and working both late and early, was able to 

turn out work which, after paying the boys, 

would amount to from six to seven dollars per 

day for his ov/n labor. To him, also, fell the 

correspondence, the collections and care of 

accounts and the keeping of the ledger, 

brother Frank being chiefly 

employed in the production 

of goods. 



LIFTING HANDLES, ETC. 
FROM OLD CATALOGUE 



26 




THE first traveling salesman for the concern was Mr. Henry W. 
Whiting, the new partner, who had previously done some work of 
this kind for Doen, Corbin & Co. and made three or four trips 
during his connection with the firm. 

In the early years of this business goods were sold upon long time. The 
custom was to make settlement twice a year — in January and July — accepting 
in payment of accounts notes payable in four months. Customers would 
naturally defer making purchases until after the settlement period and then 
buy heavily, and the result was that on a large share of the goods almost a 
year's time would be given. To hasten payment, manufacturers were wont to 
allow a cash discount of five per cent, at settlement time, or one per cent, per 
month for later prepayment of the notes. There was but little money in 
circulation, and a quick return upon capital such as is demanded to-day was not 
possible. This made it correspondingly hard for a new concern with limited 
means to make rapid headway. 

In addition, American goods were not always looked upon with favor. 
The domestic manufacture of hardware was in its infancy, the known brands 
and favored goods coming from abroad. Importers and dealers, with their 
shelves stocked with foreign goods for which a trade was already created, were 
not disposed to buy domestic wares of no general repute which would have to 
be sold as substitutes for the well-known importations. To make articles 
already manufactured in this country would be but to add to the discomfort in 
introducing his line, so Philip Corbin decided at the very beginning to, so far 
as possible, make goods not then made in America, and thus eliminate one 
source of competition. 

At the beginning, ox balls were the* principal source of revenue, but other 
! articles were added as fast as possible. The rule of avoiding domestic compe- 
tition was very generally followed. Among other things, Corbin, Whiting 
& Co. were the first to make lifting handles with bails or drop handles. At 

27 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



HOUSE 



O F 



P . 



& 



F . C O R B 1 N 



this time these were imported freely and were largely used as coffin handles as 
well as for the regular uses to which such goods are now put. Mr. Corbin 
made improved jigs and tools to hold unfinished goods in process of manufac- 
ture and had the cost reduced to a figure which enabled him to undersell the 
foreign goods and make an attractive profit. 

This coming to the ears of another firm of hardware manufacturers in the 
town, they determined to take up the same line, and one morning it was found 

that one of Corbin, Whiting & Co.'s workmen had 
gone, taking with him all data necessary for the 
production of the goods on the same basis. 
In order to forestall their coming competitors 
the price was materially reduced and large 
orders were taken, which filled the dealers' 
stocks for some time to come. When the 
other firm was ready to market the goods, the 
price was again cut, and the new competitors 
found to their disgust that the promised large 
profit in the goods did not exist. Later, the 
price was restored, but the rival's opinion of Cor- 
bin, Whiting & Co.'s ability to figure the cost of their 
product was decidedly an unfavorable one. 
Corbin, Whiting & Co. bought their casting copper 
from a Mr. Brainard of Hartford. At that time the use of 
ingot copper for casting was unknown here, the greatest 
source of supply being the old sheathing of vessels. The metal account at 
times ran for some time, as all accounts generally did, and one day, when the 
indebtedness had grown to about sixteen hundred dollars, Mr. Brainard 
appeared at the factory and asked for Philip Corbin, who confronted him with 
paper cap on, sleeves rolled up and covered with the grime of the little brass 
foundry. To him Mr. Brainard explained his errand, and was given customers' 
notes, not only to cover the indebtedness but to pay for more copper which 
would be needed soon. He left with the firm conviction that Corbin, Whit- 
ing & Co. were destined to grow and prosper, although it was made known in 
the course of his conversation that he had been influenced to call by the 
report of the rival manufacturers of lifting handles who were sure that Corbin, 
Whiting & Co. were not making money. 

A half century ago there was much of the old Puritan spirit in Connecti- 

28 




WILLIAM CORBIN. 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



HOUSE 



O F 



& 



C O R B I N 



cut, the land of the Blue Laws and of steady habits. There was much of 
intolerance in matters of religion, politics, society, and business, born of the 
sturdy, combative New England character which has wrested prosperity and 
wealth from a sterile land in an unfriendly climate. The new firm had its way 
to make against the unfriendly feeling that the presence of a possible com- 
petitor aroused. That it did not fail at this stage of its career is due to the 
persistence and industry of its members, the favor which the unusual excellence 
of its wares gained with the large dealers, and the tact and skill and rigid econ- 
omy that kept the business always upon 
a safe basis and made failure impossible. 

In the fall of 1851, Mr. Whiting 
sold his interest in the business to the 
two brothers and on January i, 1852, 
retired, the style of the firm being 
changed to P. & F. Corbin, as it has 
since remained. It is worthy of note 
that Mr. Whiting's reason for desiring 
to sell was his belief that the line was 
growing too rapidly — that too many 
new goods were being added instead of 
all the productive energy being devoted 
to the manufacture and sale of those 
already adopted. Thus the first partner 
left because in his opinion the Corbin 
policy was not progressive enough, and 
his successor because it was too pro- 
gressive. But the same steady, consist- 
ent, conservatively-aggressive plan of 
action that marked the safe middle 
course and held to it in spite of all obstacles, that created a dollar and ten 
cents before it spent a dollar, governed the acts of the little concern and has 
perpetuated its existence. 

It is also worthy of mention that the particular thing to which Mr. Whiting 
objected, and which led to his withdrawal, was the introduction of a line of 
thread escutcheons in which there was a good margin of profit and of which a 
full assortment from B/g to ^ inch was made. This still forms a part of the 
Corbin line. 




JOHN M. SPRING 



29 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

At the end of this period the force had grown to six or seven men. In 
1850, WilHam Corbin entered the factory as an apprentice and made signal 
progress in learning the business. In 1 851, John M. Spring, who was destined 
to play an important part in the development of the industry, first entered the 
factory. 

The concern was rapidly gaining recognition, because of the favor with 
which its products were received. One of the New Britain hardware manufac- 
turers, who was acquainted with the quality of the goods, called upon the 
Corbins in the latter part of 1850, with friendly intent, and suggested that 
they try to make an arrangement whereby another and larger New Britain hard- 
ware manufacturing house would market the Corbin product and thus save 
selling expenses. The advice was not received with favor, as it was thought 
unwise to give outsiders control of the product, since they could at any time 
add the same goods to their own line and leave Corbin, Whiting & Co. without 
a market. Their wisdom in thus keeping free from an entangling alliance was 
shown a few years later when their friendly advisor, who marketed his goods 
through this third concern, found himself without a trade connection and with 
his old associates aggressive competitors with a duplicate of his entire line 
made in their own factory. 

In addition to ox balls and the lifting handles, of which mention has been 
made, the little catalogue issued by P. & F. Corbin in January of 1852 con- 
tains flush bolts, lamp hooks, buttons on plates, turn and trunk buttons, 
cupboard hooks, hat and coat hooks, hat hooks, trunk catches, spiral window 
springs, thread escutcheons, paste jaggers, stair-rod eyes, shutter screws, and 
table fasteners. In addition to the goods of their own manufacture, they 
bought and sold a number of styles of bolts made by Frederick T. Stanley. 

Some of the goods then made are still incorporated in the Corbin line, and 
are standard in the trade to-day. Others have been dropped, the demand 
having ceased — such articles as lamp hooks for screwing into the ceiling and 
holding kerosene lamps suspended from wires; paste jaggers, which are now 
foreign to the line of goods made ; picture hooks, which have been replaced by 
molding hooks; stair-rod eyes, which have made way for improved devices; 
and table catches for the old style drop-leaf table. Ox balls are still listed, princi- 
pally for old association's sake, and should be held in grateful memory for the 
important part they played in the earliest days of the business.. 



30 




FROM January i, 1852, until February 14, 1854, the business was a 
copartnership, carried on solely by the brothers, Philip and Frank 
Corbin. The line of goods received constant additions, increasing the 
labor of production and sale, and multiplying the anxieties and burdens of 
the two partners. In 1853, Frank gave up his work in the factory and there- 
after spent his time upon the road selling goods. Philip also made occasional 
trips in order to keep in closer contact with the market and its needs, and 
the assortment continued to grow under his direction, while a constantly in- 
creasing number of orders taxed the little factory to its fullest capacity. 

In 1852, the business had grown beyond the limits of the factory to care 
for it and a room was hired in the factory of North & Stanley on the site of 
the present west wing of the Corbin plant, where a number of lathes and emery 
wheels were installed and run by power furnished by the owners of the building. 
At first, the goods were cast in the little foundry at the old plant, hauled to the 
new addition to be finished and taken back to be packed and shipped, but in 
a short time additional room was secured in the new premises, the foundry was 
moved up from the old site to the rear of the new location and the first factory 
was abandoned. 

It will be of interest to know that the original factory building, built in 
1847, still stands and serves a useful purpose. It was vacant for a short time 
after it was abandoned as a factory, and was then remodeled as a two-family 
dwelling and sold to two brothers in the Corbin employ. Later, these men 
decided to go back to their farms and Mr. Philip Corbin bought the building 
from them. It remained in his possession until a few years ago, when it was 
again sold and is occupied by two families. The first New Britain home of 
Mr. and Mrs. Philip Corbin, which was located within a stone's throw of the 
first factory, also is still occupied. 

It was in this period that three more of the Corbin brothers became 
identified with the business. George S. Corbin, the youngest of the brothers, 

31 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



HOUSE 



O F 



P . 



& 



C O R B I N 



came into the shop as a boy, and was connected with P. & F. Corbin until his 
death. About the same time, Waldo Corbin joined his fortunes with his 
brothers, and in 1853, at the age of 31 years, was made a partner. In 1853, 
Hezekiah, the oldest of the eight boys, also came into the factory, but soon 
left and afterwards embarked in the manufacture of paper boxes. There was 
plenty for everyone to do, and the rapidly-growing business taxed the powers of 
all to care for it. 

In 1852, Mr. Philip Corbin went upon a trip to Boston to introduce 
a new line of goods, neck bolts and barrel bolts, never before made in 
America. His sample case was two boards, with ends and side pieces and 
hinged at one edge to close, much after the fashion of the modern dress suit 

case. In this he had mounted samples of 
lifting handles, lamp hooks, brass bolts, and ox 
balls. He went into the establishment of 
Brooks Bros, on Dock Square, knowing that 
this firm dealt largely in these goods and hop- 
ing to secure their favor for his line. After 
some difficulty he found Mr. Brooks, who was 
standing on the ledge storing away goods on 
the shelves, and opened the case for his inspec- 
tion, but after looking at them over his shoulder 
from his elevated position, and learning that 
they were made by the salesman who pre- 
sented them, Mr. Brooks not only declined to 
give them closer inspection but announced that 
as he imported such goods in large quantities 
he did not want the home-made articles sold 
in that market — adding that he would send for 
Mr. Corbin when he wanted to see him. 

Several years later, Mr. Corbin was again 
in Boston upon a similar errand, carrying an 
assortment of samples which had grown until a trunk was required to contain 
them and a wagon to transport them. While he was in M. C. Warren & 
Co.'s store, one of Brooks Bros.' clerks approached him and asked him why he 
did not call upon Mr. Brooks. 

" The last time I did so," replied Mr. Corbin, " he told me that when he 
wanted to see me again he would send for me. He has not sent for me yet." 

32 




GEORGE S. CORBIN 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



HOUSE 



O F 



P . 



& 



F . C O R B I N 



In a few minutes the man returned with a request from Mr. Brooks for 
Mr. Corbin to call and bring his samples. This he did, and trade relations 
were established that lasted during Brooks Bros, existence. 

It was only natural that the importers should dislike to see their business 
encroached upon by the goods of domestic 
manufacture, for so long as the goods sold 
were of foreign manufacture they stood to 
the trade in the same relation as the domestic 
manufacturer does to-day. There was a fear 
that if goods were made at home there would 
be no room in the trade for the large jobber 
or middleman, and the case of Brooks Bros. 
was duplicated more than once or twice in the 
early experience of P. & F. Corbin. Still the 
goods were lower in price, were better made and 
in many instances showed decided improve- 
ments, and thus they made their way rapidly 
against foreign competition and the very 
limited competition at home. 

It became evident to the Corbin brothers 
that there was a much larger field than they could cover with their limited 
means and facilities, and that something to give a greater scope to their busi- 
ness should be done. At about this time one of the local manufacturers, who 
had learned to respect the capacity of P. & F. Corbin for the production of 
goods, proposed that the two concerns consolidate. When it was learned 
that P. & F. Corbin's identity would be lost in the proposed consolidation the 
proposition was not entertained, and another way was sought to secure the 
desired end. 




WALUO CORBIN 



33 



1867 




THE GROWTH OF THE PLANT 



1896 




THE need for a larger capital became more urgent as the business grew 
larger and the trade made demands for more goods than could be 
supplied with the facilities at hand, and after much deliberation and 
discussion it was decided to incorporate the business and sell enough stock to 
get the money needed. 

The members of the firm of North & Stanley, who owned the premises 
P. & F. Corbin then occupied, and whose factory was under the same roof, had 
had an excellent opportunity to learn of the way in which the business was 
done and the outlook for the future, and were very willing to buy stock in the 
new corporation as an investment. The relations of the two concerns were of 
a very friendly nature, and it was decided to make them more intimate and 
personal and to give the North & Stanley people an interest in return for the 
money they advanced for the enlargement of the business. 

On February 14, 1854, the date whose fiftieth anniversary this book com- 
memorates, seven men met in the little packing-room of P. & F. Corbin, the 
oflice being too small to accommodate so many persons at one time, and there 
the following articles of association were signed : 



ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION. 

"We, the subscribed, pursuant to the laws of the state relating to joint 
stock corporations, do hereby associate and form ourselves into a corporation, 
under the name of P. & F. Corbin, for the purpose of manufacturing, buying 
and selling articles of iron, of brass and of other materials commonly used in 
the hardware trade and of merchandising in the same, the manufacturing to be 
carried on in the town of New Britain and state of Connecticut. The capital 
stock of this corporation shall be fifty thousand dollars, divided into two 
thousand shares of twenty-five dollars each, of which we, the subscribers, take 
the number of shares set opposite our respective names." 

These men, who were thus the charter members of the company, were 
Philip Corbin, Frank Corbin, Waldo Corbin and William Corbin of P. & F. 
Corbin, and Frederic H. North, Oliver Stanley and John B. Talcott of North 

35 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

& Stanley. Of the seven, Philip Corbin, the president, and John B. Talcott, 
a director, are still identified with the company's interests. 

The company was thus capitalized at fifty thousand dollars and the stock 
was divided into two thousand shares with a par value of twenty-five dollars 
each. The three newcomers were sold seven hundred and twenty of the two 
thousand shares, leaving the controlling vote in the hands of the Corbins, who 
retained the active conduct of the business and carried it on with the same 
freedom as under the former conditions. 

On February 2ist, the officers were elected, F. H. North being made the 
president, Philip Corbin, secretary, and Frank Corbin, treasurer, the board 
of directors being composed of these three officers. 

The rapidly-growing business multiplied the labor of management, which 
up to this time had been solely in the charge of Philip Corbin. At about this 
time he began to entrust to his associates more and more of the execution of 
the work, relieving himself of much of the care and responsibility connected 
with the production of the goods and the details of selling, and giving a larger 
portion of his time to the general oversight of the business. There had not 
heretofore been much necessity for system in management or division of duties, 
William, Waldo, and Frank turning to with a will wherever their efforts were 
most needed, giving to Philip their cordial support and cooperation, but 
relying upon him for the planning of the work. Now, however, with the 
transfer of responsibility for different features of the business, there came a 
division of duties. 

Frank Corbin, who had made a number of trips selling goods for the 
concern, was given charge of this portion of the work in the East. It was 
decided to open a sales office in New York and here he went to take the man- 
agement of the store, taking with him his brother, George, a man named John 
Rogers being hired to travel from the factory to cover the West, making the 
first trip into this region for the company. He proved an excellent salesman 
and did much in the way of introducing Corbin goods in this new and undevel- 
oped territory. 

William Corbin, a young man of twenty years, who had shown a special 
aptitude in the production of goods, was made the first superintendent and put 
in charge of the mechanical end of the business. A prominent part in the 
conduct of affairs was given to Waldo Corbin. While Philip Corbin was thus 
relieved of much of the responsibility for the detail connected with the work, 
he kept as closely informed regarding all branches of it as before, and was thus 

36 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



HOUSE 



O F 



& 



C O R B I N 



able to direct affairs intelligently and yet have more time and thought to devote 
to the larger work of shaping the policy and directing the general course of the 
business. Its rapid growth made increased care and watchfulness necessary, 
and brought new problems constantly before him for solution, taxing his ener- 
gies to the utmost. At the same time, he managed the sales for the territory 
covered from the factory and a portion of his time was spent on the road away 
from home. 

At about the time that the company was incorporated, wrought brass butts, 
which the little catalogue described as " Warranted Stronger than Cast, and 
True in the Joints," were added to the line and put upon the market. These 
goods were then only made by one other American firm in this country, the 
Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Conn., of which Mr. J. M. L. 
Scovill, the founder, was also the manager. In order to introduce the goods 
and induce dealers to buy them in preference to the older brand, P. & F. 
Corbin sold them 
somewhat below 
the Scovill prices, 
and Mr. Scovill 
several times sent 
a Mr. Partree to 
call upon P. & F. 

Corbin and expostulate with them for the prices they were making. Meeting 
with no success, he finally came to dehver an ultimatum, and meeting Mr. 
Phihp Corbin on the Httle platform in front of the office door, told him that 
if P. & F. Corbin did not advance the price of brass butts the price would 
be put down to where the Corbin factory could not make them, even though 
it cut below the Scovill cost. 

"Go back to Mr. Scovill," said Mr. Corbin, "and tell him that when I 
was a boy and hunted muskrats I never shot a muskrat while it was under 
water, but when his head appeared I fired — and got him. Now, if Mr. Scovill 
wants to play a muskrat game he can, but every time his head shows above 
water I'll bring him down," and with this message Mr. Partree was dismissed. 

A few days later Mr. Scovill appeared at the old Humphrey House in 
New Britain and asked for a personal interview with the Corbin managers. 
When Philip and Frank Corbin appeared he greeted them with, " Which is 
the fellow who hunts muskrats?" The meeting ended with the most friendly 
feeling on both sides. 

37 




BRASS BUTTS 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



HOUSE 



O F 



& 



C O R B I N ! 



In 1849 o^ 1^50, Corbin, Whiting & Co. issued the first price list of Corbin 
goods, a card which would slip into an ordinary envelope, with the price list 
upon one side and the firm's name upon the other. In 1852, P. & F. Corbin^ 
the copartnership, issued a little book with eight pages and cover, which listed 
all the goods of manufacture and included some bolts made by Frederick T. 
Stanley. In 1856, a somewhat larger book, with thirty-six pages and 

cover, was required, and the articles listed com- 
n addition to the goods already men- 
full assortments of cupboard catches, 
French window catches, closet and trunk 
es, chain bolts, cabin door hooks, pic- 
ture hooks and nails, looking-glass 
>ks, wardrobe and coat and 
hat hooks in large 
variety, sash fasteners 
and lifts, drawer and 
drop handles, door pulls, 
hutter screws, house, tea, 
and call bells, bird-cage 
ooksj door knockers, a 
11 line of the window-shade 
[ curtain fixtures then in 
with rack pulleys and 
ends, and tassel hooks, 
and a large assortment of piano- 
forte, coffin, railroad-coach, and 
wardrobe wrought butts. The finishes had grown 
in variety and included olive green, bronze, brass, 
ormulu, burnished and "dead," silvered, iron with 
antique bronze finish, japanned and "electro- 
plated." Wrought plates to cupboard catches and 
wrought curtain fixtures foreshadowed the time 
FIRST CATALOGUE, ISSUED 1852 when the drop'hammcrs should displace the 

foundry in many goods. In almost all of these goods P. & F. Corbin were 
the first — or among the first — of American manufacturers to put them upon 
the market, in pursuance with their policy to so far as possible avoid domestic 
competition. The lifting handles, first made in 1850 (Corbin's present 

38 





ANDREW CORBIN, 
FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

No. 516 line), were also used in those days for coffin handles, and P. & F. Corbin 
sold them for that purpose. They soon added other patterns and the assort- 
ment grew rapidly, particularly after 1857, at which time Stephen J. Arnold 
was engaged as a designer of these goods. He had previously in a similar 
capacity worked for Bailey & Brainard of Middle Haddam, manufacturers of 
coffin trimmings, and the old Corbin catalogues show many elaborately dec- 
orative patterns of handles which he designed. These were at one time one of 
the principal articles of manufacture, but as the business became specialized and 
was taken up by concerns confining their efforts to this single line, the sales 
dwindled, and in 1871 the goods were taken off the list of merchantable 
articles, the old original lifting handles alone remaining. 

In the front of the 1856 catalogue appears a notice, reading: 

TERMS. 

Your Note of Six Months. 

N. B. — All accounts less than one hundred dollars must be closed ist 

July and ist January, by cash, less discount for unexpired time at the rate of 

ten per cent, per annum. r, ^ t- ^ i • 

'^ ^ P. & F. Corbin, 

New Britain, Conn. 

Similar notices appear in later books until after the war, when the printed 
terms of payment were changed to thirty days net cash, payable in funds at par 
in New York or Boston. There were still a number of accounts which were 
carried on the old basis of semi-annual payments, and the last few accounts of 
this kind were changed to the present commercial basis only a short time ago. 

This basis for payment made it additionally difficult for a concern with 
limited capital to do business. Notes were very generally given notwithstand- 
ing the inducement of a large cash discount, and these notes were discounted 
by the banks when the holders were in need of money and the banks had it 
to loan. 

In addition, the fluctuating value of the currency then used was a constant 
source of annoyance and anxiety. Notes were issued by individual banks at 
their own discretion and the value of such notes varied with the standing of 
the bank that issued them and the distance from the place where the bank was 
located. The notes of good New York banks passed at their face value, good 
Philadelphia notes were subjected in New York to an exchange discount of 
from five to seven per cent., and the New York exchange discount on good 
Chicago banks ranged as high as twenty-seven per cent., with a lesser deduction 
for near-by cities. 

41 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

A "Bank Note Detector" was published, giving the value of the notes of 
various banks, and this formed the standard for payment. If, for instance, a 
guest at an inn tendered a bank note in payment for his bill, mine host would 
consult his bank note detector and deduct the discount named therein before 
accepting it — or refuse it altogether if the standing of the bank was not satis- 
factory to him. It was, therefore, of importance to get the right money, and 
the matter of collections was thus burdened with an additional necessity for 
precaution. This condition existed until the United States Government issued 
the greenbacks at the time of the Civil War. 

The business received its first check when in 1857, three years after the 
new company was formed, the failure of the Ohio Trust Co. precipitated a 

panic which caused hard times all over the country. 
"The panic of '57 " is still referred to as the worst 
the country has ever seen. There were absolutely 
no orders to be obtained, and for the only time in 
its existence the factory was shut down for lack of 
trade. No work was done from August, 1857, 
until the following February. There was great 
privation everywhere. The banks refused to loan 
money upon any terms. Notes could not be dis- 
counted and gold was almost never seen. Just before 
the crash came Mr. Philip Corbin went to the bank 
in Hartford with which he did business and drew out 
three or four hundred dollars in gold, which he put in 
the little bureau drawer in which once before a little money 
had lasted for a long time, and used it for relieving unusual 
cases of distress among P. & F. Corbin's workmen, doling 
STEPHEN J. ARNOLD ^^^ ^ dolkr or two at a time to make the precious hoard go 
as far as possible, for no one knew when the tide would turn. 

At this time, there were forty or fifty employees, many of whom had 
families, and much suffering ensued, which every effort was made to relieve. 
At one time a fish net was borrowed, and a party of half a dozen went with 
Mr. Corbin to the junction of the Mattabessett River with the Connecticut 
and fished there all day through holes cut in the ice. Several bushels of fish 
were caught and were brought into the factory and spread out. upon the floor, 
where all who wished might help themselves. 

The company kept its credit intact throughout this distressing period. 

42 




HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

Indeed, it was only once seriously threatened. Before the hard times came, a 
note for a thousand dollars had been given a Mr. Brown in Waterbury, in 
payment for material. This note was made payable at one Hartford bank and 
Mr. Brown had placed it in the hands of another bank in the same city. 
When the note became due the bank that held it would not renew it since it 
was not made payable at its place of business, nor would the other bank do any- 
thing because it did not hold the note, each bank claiming that it must give such 
favors as it could to those who relied solely upon it. The only thing left to 
do was to see Mr. Brown, and, accordingly, Philip and Frank Corbin set out 
one morning on the drive to Waterbury, taking a lunch with them because 
there was no money with which to pay hotel bills. On the way they met Mr. 
Brown, who had started to New Britain to see them, and the three men turned 
out to the side of the road to feed their horses and share the Corbin brothers' 
lunch, talking business the while. They secured from Mr. Brown a new loan 
to cover the old indebtedness, paying therefor the rate of two per cent, per 
month, which under the circumstances they were very willing to do. 

When business revived, the company forged ahead more rapidly than ever, 
and a number of changes were made in the few succeeding years. In 1858, 
Andrew Corbin, the present first vice-president, became identified with the 
company and ever since has taken an active part in the conduct of its affairs. 
Since 1854 he had been engaged in the manufacturing of jewelry, first with the 
firm of Churchill & Lewis and later for himself, occupying room in the build- 
ing with P. & F. Corbin. 

In 1859, the continual absence of Frank Corbin in New York, where he 
had charge of the store, made it necessary to elect a new treasurer. Philip 
Corbin was elected to fill the place and held the office continuously until the 
latter part of 1903, when it became necessary to relieve Mr. Corbin of some 
of the cares and responsibilities connected with the business, and Mr. Charles 
E. Wetmore was elected to the position of treasurer. At the same time that 
Mr. Corbin was elected treasurer, Charles Peck, of the Peck & Walter M'f'g 
Co., came into the company and was made secretary, the firm of Peck & 
Walter going out of business. With the two additions to the managing force 
at home, Mr. Philip Corbin was able to spend a portion of the time upon the 
road, which he did for a short period only. Before the beginning of i860 the 
condition of his health warned him that he must undertake less, and he 
accordingly abandoned the road altogether, and delegated this work to 
others. Salesmen were hired to travel and since that time P. & F. Corbin 

43 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



HOUSE 



O F 



& 



F . 



C O R B I N 



have employed a force of men of varying numbers to visit customers in 
their interest. 

At this time the greater portion of the sales were made in the East, the 
wholesale hardware trade of the country being almost entirely in the hands of 
the large importing houses in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Portland, 
Maine, was in those days of relatively much greater importance than at present. 
The West was largely undeveloped, Chicago being farther from New York 
commercially than San Francisco is to-day. It was, however, canvassed for 
trade by salesmen traveling from the factory, and many of the firm Western 

friends of the Corbin goods date their acquaintance 
with them back to the days when the trade was largely 
in foreign made articles and the Corbin salesman 
came as a pioneer. 
In 1859, a new salesman, who had a large 
acquaintance among the Eastern buyers, was 
sent out from the factory to canvass for orders. 
He sent in fluent reports telling of the favor 
with which the goods were received, but the 
orders did not materialize. Finally, Mr. Philip 
Corbin packed his little sample case and started 
out after him on the same route, returning with 
orders for more than 5,000 gross of ox balls alone, 
as well as for other articles in goodly quantities — 
showing the demand that then existed for this now 
nearly obsolete article, and the fact that there were 
salesmen and salesmen, then as now. 
In i860, Frank Corbin gave up his connection with the company to embark 
in the plumbers' supply business, and Andrew Corbin went to New York to 
take charge of the store. In the fall of this same year, William Corbin, the 
superintendent of the factory and a director of the company, elected in Frank 
Corbin's stead, went to New York with the "Wide Awakes" to join in a 
demonstration in support of Lincoln's candidacy for the presidency and caught 
a cold, from the effects of which he died. He was a man who could illy be 
spared. His many good qualities made him universally loved and respected, 
and as a superintendent he could not be surpassed. He was succeeded by 
John M. Spring, a young man who came into the factory as a workman in 1851, 
and by his energy and superior ability had risen to a foreman's place and made 

44 




CHARLES PECK 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

himself of value to the company. He was a worthy successor to William 
Corbin and filled the position of superintendent for many years. Waldo 
Corbin was elected director to fill the vacancy caused by his brother's death. 

The death of William Corbin and the absence of his brother Andrew threw 
back upon Phihp Corbin much of the burden he had entrusted to them, and 
the work was almost more than he could do. At this time one of the local 
manufacturers — in fact,^the one who had originally tried to compete with the 
Corbins for their hfting handle business — called upon Mr. Phihp Corbin and 
after some talk concerning the situation proposed that his company and that of 
P. & F: Corbin consohdate, each putting in its plant at its inventoried valuation 
and receiving in exchange stock in proportion to the assets. The proposer was 
willing to have the new company retain the name of P. & F. Corbin and to give 
Phihp Corbin the management of its affairs — in fact, he showed a willingness to 
make concessions and an anxiety to help Mr. Corbin to gain relief from his 
present difficulties that smacked suspiciously of self-interest. After asking a 
few questions it became apparent that in such a consohdation the Corbin interest 
would be less than that of the proposer's concern and it would be easy to vote 
him out of the business he had created. 

"Go back to the man who sent you here," he said to the proposer of the 
plan, "and tell him that while I live he shall never get control of my business." 

A number of years later, a man in authority in the office of his principal 
local competitors told Mr. Corbin that the proposal was, as Mr. Corbin divined, 
made to get him out of the business and stop the growth which they felt to be 
a menace to their supremacy, and that the promptness with which their scheme 
was fathomed created considerable consternation when their messenger returned. 

On August 17, 1863, Edward L. Prior, now assistant treasurer and man- 
ager of accounts, came into the Corbin shops. He at first worked in the 
polishing room, and Mr. John M. Spring, the superintendent, wanted him to 
take a polishing contract, which he declined. Mr. Spring then set him to work 
in the packing room with Mr. Andrew Hart (still in charge of the hardware 
packing room) and later he helped Secretary Peck, who up to that time did all 
the office work required. As the work increased and his experience grew, he 
assumed more and more of the office work, gradually working his way into the 
office, of which he now has charge. 

With the increase in quantity of machinery, there arose a need for some- 
one to keep it in repair, and a machinist was hired for this work. In 1865, 
there were three men in the machine room, one of whom was John E. Atkin- 

45 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 




EMPLOYEES FOR MORE THAN THIRTY-FIVE YEARS 

AND DATE OF BEGINNING SERVICE 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 




EMPLOYEES FOR MORE THAN THIRTY-FIVE YEARS 



AND DATE OF BEGINNING SERVICE 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

son, now retired. There were no machines made in the factory until 1866, 
when a press was built; then an eight-spindle press for drilling butts followed, 
and from that time on P. & F. Corbin have built a large portion of the 
machinery used in their works. At this time cast butts were added, made first 
in plain and japanned finishes. The wrought butts made had proven very 
profitable, the prices having very largely advanced and the demand constantly 
increasing. Beginning with January i, 1864, these goods, which had been 
sold at a discount of 20, 1 5, and 5 per cent, from the list, were advanced to a 
premium of 10 per cent, above the same list and later to 30 per cent, premium, 
where they remained for a number of years. Then, at the solicitation of the 
hardware dealers, the list was advanced to permit a discount to be made. Butts 
were a very important item in the Corbin line, and it is probable that their 
prominence influenced the trend of the additions of new goods and was a factor 
in the assortment of " everything in builders' hardware " now sold. 

With the change in values incident to the Civil War, the old system of 
long credits disappeared and a cash basis substituted. In the Corbin printed 
matter this new notice replaced the one already quoted: 

TERMS. 

NET CASH, payable in funds at par in New York or Boston. Bills 
having run over thirty days will be subject to our draft at sight. For present 
Prices see List of Advances and Discounts accompanying. 

Since the removal to the new location, the business of P. & F. Corbin had 
been carried on in rented quarters — an ell-shaped building adjoining the hook- 
and-eye shop of North & Stanley. This was gradually filled and additional 
room was secured in the upper portion of the hook-and-eye shop adjoining, 
the first overflow into the new building occurring in 1863. On Christmas of 
that year the machinery of the finishing room was moved into a room now 
occupied in the manufacture of cast butts. More room was acquired later, and 
soon it was found desirable to have the entire building. On August 17, 1864, 
it was decided to acquire the property. 

The building thus acquired now forms the central portion of the main 
building of the Corbin plant, situated just behind the present office. Addi- 
tional stories have been added to it and the internal arrangement altered to suit 
the needs of the business, but old employees remember and can readily point 
out the old limits of the building. 

Again, in 1865, a second plat of land was purchased, and the Corbin 
industry was firmly moored to its present location. 

48 




//Mfuv^J. 



CHARLES H. PARSONS, 
SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

As the business grew and the company's influence was correspondingly 
increased it made many friends. In the hardware field its goods were univers- 
ally hailed with favor. At home, the company had some friends among dis- 
interested persons, but they were comparatively few in the community, in 
which all the interest centered in the factories which supported it, and the 
rivalries of companies and business houses were carried down to the employees 
in the shops and affected life in all its relations. P. & F. Corbin were still 
far from 'being the largest and most influential of New Britain's business houses, 
and so suffered considerably at times, — although no attempt to injure them in 
any way ever succeeded in doing much harm beyond the annoyance and trouble 
of the moment. 

One instance that occurred is worthy of mention as showing how the 
divisions in the business camps affected life in its other aspects. At the time 
of which we are writing, P. & F. Corbin had no iron foundry of their own, but 
sent their patterns to the foundry of their largest local competitor, who made 
the castings and returned them in a rough state to the Corbin factory. One 
day, in 1864, a man was sent to the other factory with some patterns and an 
order for castings, but he returned, bringing all the patterns which had been 
sent out, and reported that P. & F. Corbin could have no more castings made 
there. Foundries were not plentiful in those days, and as P. & F. Corbin 
experienced considerable difficulty in getting castings made, having to send 
patterns to other cities, it was at once decided that a foundry of their own 
should be built in the spring of 1865. Land was purchased on Orchard 
Street upon which to build, and plans were made for a new building, 
40 X 1 1 2 feet. 

New Britain was at that time organized as a borough. The Corbin brothers 
had been too absorbed in their business to take any personal part in local 
politics, but their business opponents were actively interested and the local 
officials and the state representatives were of their friends. So it was perhaps 
only considered by them a fair measure when the town's representative in the 
state legislature secured the passage of an act authorizing the borough of New 
Britain to estabHsh building lines, after which the New Britain burgesses 
immediately passed an ordinance establishing a building line twenty feet back 
on the west side of Orchard Street, spoiling P. & F. Corbin's new foundry site 
and making it impossible to build there. 

When Mr. Philip Corbin sought legal advice, his counsel, ex-Governor Hub- 
bard of Connecticut, did not give him much encouragement, for a speedy solution 

51 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN I 

of the difficulty. So long as the act authorizing the borough to establish building 
lines was in force the burgesses were in a position to enforce the offensive 
ordinance ; to fight it out in the courts would take much time and money, and '. Ij 
in the meantime, P. & F. Corbin would be without the needed foundry. 
About the only way to get speedy relief was in a repeal of the ordinance, and it 
was useless to expect the present officials to take any such action. Manifestly, 
there must be a new warden and new burgesses, in order to nullify the action of 
the present body. 

The next local election was held in the following April. It seemed useless 
to try to secure from the Republican leaders the nomination of desirable candi- 
dates, so no attempt at interference was made and at the Republican caucus a 
strongly anti-Corbin set of nominations was made without opposition. How- 
ever, after conferring with the leading Democrat of the place, and giving the 
matter due consideration, it was decided to put up privately a People's ticket, 
with Philip Corbin at the head as warden, and to conduct a personal canvass for 
votes among the Democrats and the Corbin supporters. This was done, and 
so secretly was the canvass made that it was not known there were two tickets in 
the field until well along in the afternoon of election day, when the head of the 
rival house burst into the office of his concern with the announcement that 
" there was a snide game being played ; that there was an independent ticket out 
with Phil Corbin at the head, and it MUST be defeated." A blinding snow- 
storm — one of the worst of the winter — was raging. Carriages were hurried 
out to bring in voters, more than half of those who were thus brought to the 
polls voting the Corbin ticket, and when the ballots were counted it was found 
that the independent ticket had an overwhelming majority. The first act of the 
new body of burgesses was to repeal the obnoxious ordinance fixing the Orchard 
Street building line, and P. & F. Corbin built the iron foundry in the spring of 
1865, as originally planned. 

At the end of his first — and only — term as warden, Mr. Corbin was 
urged to remain in office, his occupancy having given the townspeople universal 
satisfaction, but he had gained his end and secured justice for his company, 
and declined to serve again. 

With the addition of the new iron foundry, the increase in the production 
of iron goods multiplied. In addition tp the castings for their own goods, they 
did a general foundry business and furnished many tons of castings to concerns 
without a foundry. Among others, there were Pratt & Whitney of Hartford 
and Hiram Tucker & Co. of Boston. This latter company was engaged in the 

52 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

manufacture of gas fixtures finished by a patent process, in what was then known 
as "Tucker Bronze," and which is now dupHcated in the Corbin amber bronze 
finish. Castings in large quantities were furnished them for several years. 
Later, when P. & F. Corbin were fully embarked in the cast butt business, an 
ornamental design of butt was made by one of their workmen named Fracker 
and sent to Hiram Tucker, who put his finish upon them and returned them. 
They met with instant favor and the estimation in which they were held may be 
gauged ^y the prices paid. In the latter part of 1868, the sales books show 
copies of invoices of these goods to Burditt & Williams, the first Boston people 
to handle them, the prices averaging over ^3.00 per pair, net. 

Later, P. & F. Corbin learned to apply the same finish. They were the 
first to use it upon hardware and its use marked the first step in the direction of 
the finer grades of builders' hardware made by P. & F. Corbin. 

In the fall of 1863, ^ two-hundred horse-power engine was installed, 
although only about eighty horse power was actually required, showing hov/ the 
Corbin managers built for the future, then as now. William Scott was made 
engineer and ever since then has had charge of the motive power of the Corbin 
plant. At this time, the force employed had grown to about three hundred men. 

In 1867, ^ cloth-bound, fully illustrated catalogue of goods was issued. It 
was a much more ambitious book than had previously been attempted, requir- 
ing a full new set of wood cuts. So good were these cuts that a number of 
them were used as late as the 1895 edition. Butts were brought from the back 
of the book to the front, where they have always remained. Many new forms 
of bolts were seen. The slide bell pulls now sold were shown. Sash fasteners 
of a pattern now obsolete, bed-keys, toilet screws, picture nails, curtain fixtures, 
and hat hooks of shapes that would now be thought strange, mark the advance 
made in some directions since the book was issued. Some of the goods were 
quite ornamental — for instance, several styles of coat and hat hooks made by 
drawing a fancy knurled brass rod over a steel wire, bending it to shape and 
tipping it with porcelain knobs. Twenty-six of the one hundred and thirty-two 
pages were devoted to coffin trimmings, many of them very elaborate in design. 

The policy of confining the assortment to goods made only abroad had long 
since been abandoned, for it was found that so soon as a Corbin article became 
popular other manufacturers took it up and strong competition ensued. It 
was not until 1868, however, that locks and knobs were added to the assort- 
ment and a definite attempt made to put upon the market a complete line of 
builders' hardware. At first all the locks were made with wrought working 

53 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



HOUSE 



O F 



& 



C O R B I N 



parts. Following the usual custom, new goods were added as rapidly as pat- 
terns and tools could be made, and in 1870 the assortment of locks and latches 

contained • 1 1 i i 

23 mortise knob latches, 

2 mortise night latches, 

18 mortise dead locks, 

^2 mortise knob locks, 

9 mortise front door locks, 

4 mortise vestibule latches, 

109 rim locks and latches, 

together with the necessary keys in malleable iron and brass, twenty-one dif- 
ferent key plates and thirty-three different knobs. In addition to the mineral 
and porcelain knobs with japanned roses, there were three ornamented white 

metal knobs with heavy bronze plated sur- 
faces, and two of bronze metal, all knobs 
having roses to match. Coffin hardware 
was relegated to the rear ; there were acces- 
sions in the way of sash fasteners, chain- 
door fasteners, store-door handles, door 
pulls, sash lifts, shutter knobs, bolts, 
butts, and bells, and other goods in house 
trimmings. A patent screwless spindle 
was shown. In fact, the new field was 
being covered as completely and as rapidly 
as the Corbin facilities would permit. 
The year following ( 1871 ), a lock list of 
320 pages was required to catalogue these 
goods, and from that time to the present 
there has been a persistent active effort to 
put upon the market the most complete 
assortment of everything required in 
house-finishing hardware, and to have it 
of the best quality. 

There always seems to have been a 
race in the Corbin factory between the 
line of goods and the facilities for making them, and one of the problems that 
have always confronted the management of the company has been to provide 

54 







IMJ I C K J. I s r 

JlORTISe KSOB LATCHES. 






No 


,1^ 1 J.I«lw«dC.,.,1lii,o«dK>«nt 


Wlth.'.l 
K„...... 




R()c:a) ED«F,. 


Per <l«iM>. 







li^ » *V i If"i> Front and Strike. Iron Holt, 


ill r*) 






■ jj 


" 1 Bnifs Front and Strike. Iron Bolt, . 


2 75 


■1 




10 


Br«!>8 From and .Strikf, Brass Bolt, . 


.3 50 


< 




15 


S«3>;' Iron Front and Strike, Iron BoH. .'; 
inch (Wck, for Thin Doorf, 


3 00 


! 




20 


" i Brass Front and Strike, Iron Bolt. ?„ 












Incli thick, for Tliin Doors, 


■too 




— 


25 




Bragg Front and Strike. Brass Bolt^ 
^s'-inch thick, for Tliin Doors, . 


i 50 






030 


l>fxa>i 


Iron Front and Strike. Iron Bolt, , . 


1 75 






031 


" 


Iron Front and Strike, Brass Bolt. . 


2 50 


j 




010 




Brass Front and Strike, Brass Bolt, 
S<iUAKE EDGE. * PATENT I.EVER. 

Japaniuyt Cum, l.art{uenMl Fn'Ot. 


3 50 






30 


lX«8>i 


Iron Front and Strike, Iron Bolt, . 


335 






35 


" 


Brass Front and Strike, Iron Bolt, 


800 






40 


" 


Brass Front and Strike. Brass Bolt, . 


450 


■| 




45 


2K«a¥ 


Iron Front and Strike, Iron Bolt. . 


5 00 


< 




60 




Brass Front and Strike, Brass Bolt, . 


6C0 


j 
) 

1 


• A 


11 r.i.tcK«s with Pkl«iit L«Ter an w> rnn<tra<'te<l a> to rcinire tnit 


« illeht 






turn of Ibe knofi to Ihrow the Wit I'ark. 




1 



FIRST LOCK LIST, l5 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

additional buildings fast enough to accommodate the machinery necessary to 
carry out the plans for the business. In 1868, the buildings of the factory were 
increased by the addition of an extension to the east of their main building, 
matching the North & Stanley building on the west. In February of 1869 ^^^ 
record says that "a complete inventory could not be taken on account of build- 
ing, moving, etc., and the matter was postponed until July or January." Thus 
the business absorbed the capital it produced. Dividends were purposely kept 
lower than those of many of the neighboring concerns whose net earnings were 
less, in order that the money might be used in developing the business, and for 
the same reason the officers were content with small salaries. Yet, despite all 
economy and precautions, the expense of developing and enlarging the business 
had made such large expenditures necessary that at one time, in 1869, ^^^ ^^ 
the two banks with which P. & F. Corbin did their business had discounted 
notes for about eighty thousand dollars and the other for forty thousand dollars 
and each had made accommodation loans for about an equal amount to carry 
the Corbins through their building operations. Suddenly, to their surprise, 
each of the banks sent a notice to the company stating that the indebtedness 
must be reduced one-half within thirty days. The situation was made plain, 
however, when a friend told Mr. Philip Corbin of meeting one of the members 
of a rival manufacturing company, who said that "they had got Phil Corbin 
now just where they wanted him and would make him fail inside of sixty days." 
By dint of hard work, by borrowing wherever they could and paying any rate 
of interest asked, the obligations were met when due and P. & F. Corbin were 
tided over the temporary stringency in their money matters and again reached 
a solid financial footing. There was never a time in the history of the concern 
when its visible assets did not more than make secure any indebtedness it might 
have incurred, and in this instance the only difficulty and annoyance was in the 
necessity of raising so large an amount in so short a time. 

Two or three years later, one of the principal manufacturers of Waterbury, 
whose goods P. & F. Corbin were selling in connection with their own, called 
upon Mr. Philip Corbin and was given a large order. As he folded it and put 
it into his pocket he told Mr. Corbin that if it was not convenient to pay in 
cash when the bill was due he would be willing to accept a note, but Mr. Cor- 
bin said they would pay cash, thanking him, however, for his offer. In the 
course of the conversation the visitor remarked : 

"Your left-handed friends here didn't succeed in their attempt to fail you, 
did they?" 

55 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



HOUSE 



O F 



& 



C O R B I N 



"What do you know about it?" asked Mr. Corbin. 

It transpired he knew all about it, and he told Mr. Corbin that his rivals 
had not only induced the banks to withdraw their favor, but had addressed a 
confidential letter to all concerns to whom they thought P. & F. Corbin might 
be indebted, advising them to collect any outstanding bills as quickly as possi- 
ble, as the company was on the verge of failure. 

When discussing the incident with one of his brothers later, his brother said, 
"They had you failed two or three times, Phil, but the trouble was 
that you didn't know it." 

In 1870, the number of workmen had increased to about five 
hundred. The strength and size of the concern rendered 
it less subject to annoyance and injury from its business 

rivals, and although 
the same antagonistic 
feeling was apparent 
for many years there 
was no attempt to 
make trouble outside 
the legitimate trade 
rivalry for orders. And it 
is worthy of note and com- 
ment that in all their career 
the only attempts at reprisal 
that P. & F. Corbin have made 
have been to enlarge their field the 
faster and to cover the disputed lines of 
goods the more thoroughly and fully, to the 
end that the attacks upon their trade might 
be nullified. Thus it was made stronger and but grew the faster for the 
obstacles it had to encounter. 

From this time on there is less of special incident to record. The business 
had grown to a magnitude that overshadowed separate occurrences and made 
them comparatively unimportant. When Doen, Corbin & Co.'s horse went 
lame on the tread-mill it was a serious catastrophe — and a new grindstone or 
lathe a thing of moment. ■ In later years, a new building with equipment com- 
plete hardly excited as much attention, and the constant additions of machinery 
and introduction of new processes caused such things to lose their novelty. 

56 




DESIGNER AT WORK 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



HOUSE 



O F 



& 



C O R B I N 



The larger the business grew, the more momentum was gained and the more 
rapidly the growth continued. 

In 1872 Andrew Corbin left New York to come to the factory to become 
general manager of the factory, a position he has ever since held. A man of 
rare mechanical ability, with a quick, accurate judgment of the relative value of 
processes of manufacture, and the Corbin faculty of planning upon broad lines 
for future needs, it would be difficult to overstate the influence he has exerted 
upon the business. He and his brother Philip, working and planning together, 
have made the factory what it is to-day — as homogeneous and convenient as 
though planned and built as a whole instead of being erected piecemeal with 
intervals of years between buildings. 

With the return of Andrew Corbin to New Britain a new and more vigorous 
spirit seemed to animate the actions of the concern. It was at about this time 
that local competitors came to look upon the business as a permanent one and ceased 
to oppose it except in the market, and the last superficial aspect of anything like 
a life-and-death struggle for existence and local recognition, disappeared. Philip 
Corbin was, for the first time, freed from the detail of the production of goods 
and enabled to devote to the general conduct of the business those rare admin- 
istrative qualities that have gained for the company its present preeminence. 
Andrew Corbin managed the production, with 
John M. Spring, the superintendent, to carry out 
the details. Quiet and unassuming to the verge 
of self-effacement, the quickening and masterful 
impulse of Andrew Corbin's factory manage- 
ment has been felt and seen, but never ex- 
ploited, and will continue to influence the man- 
ufacture of the goods so long as the present 
hne is made in the buildings now occupied. 

When Andrew Corbin left New York the 
charge of the store there was given to the 
youngest of the brothers, George S. Corbin, 
who went to New York in 1854 with Frank 
Corbin, when the branch was started, and had 
been connected with the store ever since. He 
remained in charge until Butler & Constant 
became the New York agents and the branch 
was temporarily abandoned. 

57 




MODELING 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



HOUSE 



O F 



P . 



& 



F. 



C O R B I N 



The rapidity with which the business was shaped along the new Hnes is 
shown by the catalogue issued in 1872, which is strictly a catalogue of builders' 
hardware. Goods in other branches of hardware were omitted, and the 506 
pages present an assortment that for its day must have been unequaled. 

In 1874, the most decorative hardware ever produced by any manufacturer 
was added to the Corbin line in the form of bronze goods with surfaces finished 
in enamel of different colors, just as enameled jewelry, badges, lodge and class 
pins, etc., are made to-day. It did not achieve a large sale, owing to the high 
cost and the unpropitious time for its introduction, the country being then in 
the throes of a panic with the following season of depression. The style of 
ornament then prevailing, with its flat design rising above a level background, 
was particularly favorable to this treatment and no special designs were required. 
An enameling jeweler from Providence, named Horace Bunting, had charge of 
the work and finished the goods in a room especially fitted for the purpose 
in the factory basement. 

The goods were very high in price, being expensive to produce, and their 
use was limited to the houses of very wealthy people. One residence in Taun- 
ton had a number of rooms fitted with this class of hardware, 
the enamel being tinted to correspond with the color scheme 
of each room. The cost for the enameled hardware 
used in this house was over three thousand dollars, a very 
unusual expenditure in those days, when special designs 
and finishes were comparatively unknown. The 
enameled knobs used on this job were billed at 
I8.50 and $9.50 per pair — and other items in 
proportion. The front door trim alone cost 
I103.50. 

The finish on enameled hardware was prac- 
tically everlasting, and such of these goods as 
have been in use since the time they were made 
present the same appearance to-day as when first 
applied. 

In 1873, ^h^ company sustained a loss in 
the death of Waldo Corbin, then a director, and 
having in his especial charge .the manufacture 
of wrought butts. His death occurred on Feb- 
ruary 9th, two days before the date set for the 

58 




CHASER AT WORK 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



HOUSE 



O F 



P . 



& 



F . 



C O R B I N 



annual meeting, and in 
respect to his memory 
the meeting was deferred 
for one week. 

Mr. Waldo Corbin's 
death having made it 
necessary to-choose a 
new director, An- 
drew Corbin 
was elected at 
this meeting. 

Ini876,it 
was thought 
advisable to 
make a pub- 
lic display of 
builders' hard- 
to the Centennial Ex- 




pattern 



ware, and an exhibit was sent 
position, where a gold medal was 
awarded for the superior excellence of the goods. Some fifteen hundred different 
articles were mounted upon twelve French walnut boards, seven feet by four, which 
were placed in a case forty-six feet long, surmounted by ebony and black walnut 
fronts and surrounded by a heavy bronze railing with an elaborately-ornamental 
bronze post at one end. All the metal work was done by P. & F. Corbin, in- 
cluding a bronze metal mantel costing about seven hundred dollars. 

A less elaborate exhibit in Philadelphia, in 1856, won an award " For Cabinet 
and House Trimming Goods." 

In November of 1876, the brick building erected by North & Stanley on 
the site of the little ell-shaped structure first occupied by P. & F. Corbin on the 
present premises was purchased to provide needed room for some of the 
departments. In June of the following year, the pattern room was moved to 
the new building, an event which the men therein employed thought worthy of 
celebration. The New Britain Oi^server of June 26, 1877, contains the follow- 
ing account of the affair : 

"The workmen in the pattern room of P. & F. Corbin's factory last 
Thursday tendered to their employers and several others, mostly workmen in 
the same shop, a complimentary dinner and clam bake, at Traut's Park, to cel- 
ebrate their removal from their old quarters to more commodious ones in 

59 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

the lower story of the end of the building formerly occupied by North & 
Stanley. 

"The dinner itself was a grand success — Prentice superintended the 
chowder part and Henry Goodrich overlooked the preparation of the remainder 
of the feast in a manner which was very creditable to his skill. Roast oysters, 
clams, broiled chickens, and numerous other delicacies were served on a 
long table spread in the dancing pavilion until the guests were obliged to cry 
for mercy, when another detachment took their places, and yet there was 
plenty left. After the dinner was served the whole party adjourned to the 
meadow in the rear of the grove, and divided into sides, under the leadership 
of Charles Wetmore and Willis Lamb, and began a game of baseball, 
which was not the least amusing feature of the day's enjoyment. We append 
the score : 

O. R. O. R. 

**Lamb, 02 Wetmore, i i 

Spring, ......10 F. Corbin, 12 

P. Corbin, 10 A. Corbin, i i 

ToUes, 20 Peck, 12 

Arnold, 21 Ginder, 3 o 

Case, '..03 C. Corbin, 02 

Spencer, 12 Quinn, 30 

Atkinson, 3 o Hart, 21 

Judd, 12 Vance, 10 

Scripture, 12 H. Corbin, 11 

Wilford, 12 Sparks, 20 

Seymour, 11 A. Arens, i i 

Clemments, 20 Thompson, 01 

Parsons, . . . . . .1 o Joy, 20 

Widmayer, 30 Jost, 10 

Holmes, .1 o Hull, i i 

Total, . . . . 2 1 1 5 Total, . . . . 2 1 1 3 " 

In the latter '70's, a very extensive and profitable business was done in 
nickel plated cast-iron stove trimmings — knobs, hinge pins, turn keys, damper 
handles, rail and urn tips, blower handles, etc. The major portion of the 
goods were cast in the Corbin foundry, but large quantities were sent here to 
be plated. After a time, the larger stove foundries made their own knobs and 
the profit in these goods was greatly reduced, when the line was dropped. 
" Billy" Wolf, then employed in the office, made a fully illustrated mimeograph 

60 




v\ 



CHARLES E. WETMORE, 
TREASURER 



HISTOF.Y OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

catalogue, in April of 1879, which is a model of neatness and doubtless was a 
valuable aid in selling the goods. 

The universal practice at this time was to pay factory employees once a 
month, reserving two weeks' pay, and workmen were sometimes badly in need 
of money before pay day arrived. In many factories when workmen were 
advanced money between pay days five per cent, was deducted for prepayment. 
Superintendent Spring kept a sum of money in his office and it was his practice 
to advance small sums to the Corbin workmen, turning in a memorandum of 
the amounts before pay day in order that they might be deducted. Later, the 
number of workmen became so great and the call for advances so frequent that 
the customary five per cent, deduction was made to check the frequent demands, 
but Mr. Philip Corbin did not approve of the practice, and in March of 1879 
inaugurated the system of weekly payment with one week in reserve. The 
workmen had made no request for such a change, and had made no complaint 
of the previous conditions, and the departure came as a welcome surprise. On 
the night that the announcement of the new system was made, hundreds of 
the workmen assembled in the square before the Humphrey House, a band was 
engaged, transparencies and commemorative banners hastily constructed and a 
procession formed which marched to the residence of Philip Corbin to testify 
to their appreciation of the new order of things. A weekly pay roll was then 
generally regarded as an experiment, and the daily papers mentioned the event 
guardedly, as a matter of doubtful expediency. 

In the decade of 1870-80 six general catalogues were issued — 1870, 1871, 
1872, 1874, 1876, 1878 — each larger than its predecessor, the 1878 book 
containing 834 pages of about the size of those in the 1895 edition. The 
frequent changes in prices made it advisable to omit lists and print them in a 
separate price book, a practice which has obtained since 1874. Lava knobs, in 
their day a leading article, were first shown in 1874; "copal bronzed" finish 
made its first appearance in 1874, and "amber bronzed" in 1878. Compressed 
wood knobs in a number of designs find space in the 1876 book, being bought 
from the makers and sold in conjunction with Corbin goods. Loose pin butts, 
axle pulleys, extension flush bolts, and lever handles are also first shown in the 
1876 edition, together with the type of spring bolt like Corbin's S551, now 
being revived in some sections of the country. Espagniolette bolts first appear 
in 1878. 

The style of ornamentation had not to this time been classified by school 
of design, but in 1878 the first Gothic design was introduced. This proved a 

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favorite, being sold in large quantities and used upon many of the finest buildings 
of that day, including the Hartford Capitol. A "Roman" and a "Grecian" 
design had been so named among the very first of the knobs and roses made, 
but the names were applied because one knob bore the head of a Roman soldier 
and the other that of Minerva, and not because of the school of the ornament. 
All the figures were in low-relief, and the ornament was formed of scrolls 
and sprays, after the fashion of the adornment of Corbin's No. 52 butt. 
No. 1 21 5 drawer pull, No. 3072 chest handles, and Nos. 1279 and 1280 bird- 
cage hooks. 

In 1879, the manufacture of cabinet locks was decided upon. Prior to 
that time nothing in the way of cabinet locks had been made by the company, 
but now plans were made to cover this particular field with the same thorough- 
ness that had been displayed in other directions. 

Up to 1880, the capital 
stock of the company had 
remained Fifty Thousand 
Dollars, the capitalization 
at the time the corpora- 
tion was formed. The 
large sums which had 
been taken from the 
earnings and rein- 
vested in land, 
buildings, and 
equipment made 
the amount of cap- 
ital stock inade- 
quate, and on 
February 26, 
1880, it was voted 
to increase the capital 
stock to Five Hundred 
Thousand Dollars, the 
stockholders subscribing for 
the new issue in proportion to 
their holdings. The officers of 
the company had been satisfied 
64 




HISTORYOF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

with small salaries and the dividends to stockholders had been kept low, in 
order to provide the necessary funds for expansion, and every dollar of the 
capital stock was covered by tangible assets. 

With the increase in capital stock came a partial reorganization of the 
company. A new charter was procured, better suited to the enlarged scope of 
the business, and duly accepted by the stockholders. The number of directors 
was increased to seven, the new board consisting of Philip and Andrew Corbin, 
Oliver Stanley, N. G. Miller, John B. Talcott, E. Strickland, and George S. 
Scott. Prior to this time, shipments to the territory outside of New England 
had been made from the New York store, a stock being sent there from which 
orders were filled, but it was found to be cheaper, with the improved transpor- 
tation facilities, to make shipments direct from the factory, and only such goods 
were sent to New York as were required for the needs of the local trade. 
Sales to the territory outside of New York's legitimate field were made from 
New Britain thereafter, and the accounts transferred to this office. 

Every part of the business prospered. New goods were added as fast as 
patterns and tools could be made. A government contract for letter box locks 
and keys was secured, and a post-office business thus begun, and the entire line 
of cabinet locks rapidly developed. The old round, 

** The duck eats the worm ; 
The man eats the duck ; 
The worm eats the man ; 
The duck eats the worm," 

found its counterpart in the way in which the manufacture of goods was urged, 
that from the profits thus gained the plant might be increased, that more goods 
might be made, that a larger profit might be reinvested in new buildings and 
equipment. The story of the ten years between 1880 and 1890 is a successive 
mention of new buildings erected and filled and a steady enlargement of the 
field of manufacture. 

In 1880, a wooden foundry building, Sox 100 feet, was built in the rear of 
Philip Corbin's residence. This same year a four arc light electric lighting 
machine was installed in the new foundry, being one of the first equipments of 
the kind in a New England factory. Two ten-light machines followed in 1881, 
and additions have been made since, until the entire factory is lighted with 
electricity, which is also employed in running machinery in locations where the 
steam power plant cannot be economically used. 

On March 23d, E. Strickland resigned as director, to be succeeded by 

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Darius Miller, who, on February 15, 1882, gave place to A. S. Chase. On 
the same last-named date George S. Scott was succeeded as director by R. D. 
Hubbard. 

In 1882, the cabinet lock business was sold to the Corbin Cabinet Lock 
Co., a new corporation organized to carry forward the development of this 
branch to its fullest capacity for growth, and to give it the special attention it 
could not receive as an adjunct to P. & F. Corbin's builders' hardware busi- 
ness. At this point P. & F. Corbin's connection with this branch of industry 

ceases, although the relations between the two com- 
panies have ever since been of the closest charac- 
ter, the Corbin Cabinet Lock Co. occupying build- 
ings rented from P. & F. Corbin, and the buying, 
financing, etc., being done in P. & F. Corbin's 
office. The first board of directors consisted of 
Philip Corbin, Andrew Corbin, Charles Peck, N. 
G. Miller, J. M. Spring, F. W. Mix, and John 
B. Talcott. The officers were the same as those 
of P. & F. Corbin. F. W. Mix, the superintend- 
ent, had formerly filled a similar position for a 
company making cabinet locks and brought to the 
Corbin Cabinet Lock Co. a large experience in this 
line. Later, George W. Corbin, a son of Waldo 
Corbin, a former director of P. & F. Corbin, assumed the 
management of the Corbin Cabinet Lock Co. and was 
made its secretary, Philip Corbin being still the president, 
and Andrew Corbin, vice-president. The business has become the largest in 
the country in its line. More styles of keys and key blanks, padlocks, and 
cabinet locks of all kinds are made than are made by any of its competitors, 
and it still pursues the Corbin policy of extending its scope as fast as develop- 
ments in the trade and the call for new goods will permit. Any one of its 
principal lines of manufacture will outclass the competing goods of any com- 
pany making one line only, and even more easily distances other competitors. 

At the time of the incorporation of the Corbin Cabinet Lock Co., P. & F. 
Corbin had no room at their disposal for the new company. To keep the 
business in New Britain it was decided to erect and rent to them a building 
suitable to their needs and accordingly such a building was built of brick, on 
Orchard Street and Park Street, just across Orchard Street from P. & F. Corbin's 

66 




GEORGE W. CORBIN 




ALBERT N. ABBE, 
SECRETARY 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

factory. Work was begun at once. By the first of May the residence occu- 
pied by Mr. PhiUp Corbin had been moved away; by the middle of May a 
large force of men was at work; August ist found the brickwork done; before 
the middle of October the machinery was going in, and by the middle of 
November the flagstaff with its gilt weather vane was in place. 

In 1885, P. & 'F. Corbin built an addition to the Corbin Cabinet Lock 
Co.'s building, extending along Orchard Street for two hundred feet, and 
increased the height of the building erected in 1882. In 1891, another 
addition was made, extending the building along Park Street to Maple with an 
ell upon Maple Street. It now occupies all of the building along Park Street, 
from Orchard to Maple Street, the Maple Street extension, all the connecting 
buildings on the east side of Orchard Street, as well as a large building in 
Kensington, a few miles away, where an extensive business in post-ofiice 
equipments is conducted. 

Mr. George W. Corbin has been the manager of the Corbin Cabinet Lock 
Co. since its organization, and secretary since 1896, and the astonishing 
rapidity with which it has gained the foremost place in every branch of its 
business is due to his untiring energy and business sagacity, and the support 
given him by Philip and Andrew Corbin, as president and vice-president of 
the company. Mr. George W. Corbin is a wide-minded business man, with 
the generous instincts and the pluck and determination which are prominent 
traits of the Corbin family. Under his able leadership the company is 
assured of a growth in the future greater than that of the past as his present 
facilities are greater than those of the first years. Two of his brothers are 
associated with him, Albert F. Corbin as superintendent, and William Corbin 
in charge of the orders and shipments. 

At the annual meeting on February 22, 1883, Charles Peck presented his 
resignation, after twenty-five years of service. 

On March 14, 1883, Mr. S. C. Dunham was elected to the office in his 
stead. A year later (March 3, 1884), R. D. Hubbard, a director, died, and at 
the next following annual meeting Charles Miller, one of the present board of 
directors, was elected. 

The 1885 catalogue contains little in the way of new articles, but much in 
the way of improvement. Locks with "steamboat" stops, like the present No. 
12305^, appear for the first time, and a considerable improvement in mechanism 
has been made. In ornamental trimmings a much larger assortment is shown, 
with greater variety in design, some of which are classified by school, as Gothic 

69 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 



mm 




DEPARTMENT MANAGERS 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

and bas-relief, and others by arbitrary names, as "Cushion," "Brocade," 
"Venetian," and "Diagonal," the last named being the only one to survive the 
changes made since that time. Plain square or round shapes with bevel edges 
appear and there is less exaggeration in outhne. A great many of the lock 
fronts are ornamented. Transom rods are listed and improvements in sash 
fasteners are evident." The list of finishes has grown to five on iron and seven- 
teen upon bronze, all designated by number. 

On February 19, 1885, N. G. Miller, director, was succeeded by James 
Bates, who served for one year, he being succeeded by James Bolter. 

In 1886, the roof of the old main building was raised one story. The same 
year, in order to secure more room, the foundry of the Taylor Manufacturing 
Company was leased. This, however, did not prove a satisfactory arrangement, 
the men not having room to place their molds properly, and in 1887 the 
property of the Francis Manufacturing Company on Stanley Street, now known 
as the P. & F. Corbin "Annex," was bought. The land consists of 13^ acres, 
with a frontage on the railroad nearly one-third of a mile in length. There 
were upon it a brick foundry 140 feet long, a one-story wooden building 175 
feet long, and some smaller wooden buildings. The place was not occupied 
until early in 1889. There was a stationary engine in the place. A new por- 
cupine boiler was put in and the buildings equipped with steam heat. 

In 1886, S. C. Dunham was succeeded as secretary by Oliver Stanley. Mr. 
Dunham's services were largely of a legal and advisory nature and his advice is 
still sought frequently in affairs of moment. He is auditor for the company, 
in which capacity he has served since 1887. 

The two-hundred horse-power engine bought in 1868 had furnished all the 
power required in the Corbin plant up to this time. When it was installed only 
eighty horse power were required to move the machinery, but with the constant 
additions the load had increased until it was very apparent that more power 
would be required. Another and larger engine had been bought for the Corbin 
Cabinet Lock Company's building, but was not yet in use. On July nth the 
piston rod of the engine buckled under the strain. Engineer Scott and his 
assistant happened to be watching the engine at the time and each leaped 
through a door just before the place was filled with steam and wrecked by the 
breaking engine. 

A " council of war " was held in the ofiice. 

"How long will it take to repair the damage?" asked Superintendent 
Spring. Master mechanic Cromwell Case thought it would take two or three 

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weeks at the least to set the new Cabinet Lock engine in the place of the 
smashed one. Engineer Scott thought it might be done in two weeks. Mr. 
Spring didn't see how he could let the factory stand idle for so long a time. 

"If you say so," said Mr. Scott, "we'll do it in one week." 

"Then I say so, of course," was the reply. 

Two days were allowed for clearing away the debris, two for preparing a new 
bed and two for putting in the new engine. The men worked in gangs, every 
hour of the twenty-four being employed, and a Sunday intervening helped on 
the time, so that at the end of the week the new engine was running. The 
engine-room was over a bit of old marsh and the new bed oscillated consider- 
ably on its uncer- 
tain foundation, 
but the engine did 
its work without a 
hitch until relieved. 
OnMayi,i888, 
the working hours 
were changed. 
Previously the 
working day be 
at half-past six 
the morning 





COUNTING ROOM 



ENTRANCE 
HALL 



ended at half-past five in the afternoon, 
with an hour's intermission at noon. 
The other factories in town had 
made a change, beginning at seven 
o'clock and closing at six, as at 
present, and P. & F. Corbin con- 
formed to the general practice. 

More buildings! more machin- 
ery! more goods resulting from 
increased equipment. ^ A planer. 



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DIRECTORS ROOM 



weighing 8,800 pounds, 
a belt 140 feet long and 
twenty-nine inches wide, 
a six-inch main shaft, and 
a one-hundred horse- 
power boiler, are among 
the articles in the way of 
equipment thought 
worthy of record by local 
chroniclers. A six-story 
brick structure, 140 feet 
long and 45 feet wide, 
was built on the west side 
of Orchard Street in 1 8 8 8, 
together with a 50 x 45- 
foot wing at the south 
end. Other minor 
changes were made about the works to give more room and a better arrangement. 
In 1889, a display was made at the Paris Exposition, securing the highest 
award — a gold medal. 

At the annual stockholders' meeting, in February of 1891, Chas. H. Par- 
sons, the present second vice-president, was elected as a director. Mr. Parsons 
has been identified with the company since 1873, ^^ which time he left Landers, 
Frary & Clark to take a position as traveling saleman for P. & F. Corbin, cov- 
ering New England and Canada. He was only on the road for a part of the 
time, and when in the house devoted his attention to the order department. In 
1879 or 1880, when the care of the general trade was transferred to New Brit- 
ain, Mr. Parsons left the road and took charge of the orders, a man named 
Henry E. Collis billing the goods to the former New York customers and 
Henry A. Bailey charging the goods to the New England trade. 

As the work grew, a constantly-increasing load of responsibility was laid 
upon Mr. Parsons. When Mr. Dunham became secretary, much of the work 
which had previously been done by Charles Peck, the former secretary, devolved 
upon him. He gradually assumed entire charge of the sales department and 
to-day has in hand the marketing of the product of the Corbin factory and the 
issuance of its catalogues. 

Although Mr. Parsons' home duties are arduous, he still finds time to visit 

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MOLDERS AT WORK 



at intervals the most important 
cities east of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, and thus maintains a personal 
acquaintance with the company's prin- 
cipal customers and their needs. 
In fact, there are few men con- 
nected with the hardware manufac- 
turing interests of the country who 
are as well known as he. Keen, 
forceful, quick to decide upon a 
course of action, and untiring in 
his efforts to accomplish any task 
to which he has set his hand, he 
represents a high type of New 
England character. 

In 1 891, it was decided to provide for an adequate water supply inde- 
pendent of the city system. An attempt to procure water by digging an artesian 
well had not resulted satisfactorily and it was found advisable to purchase 
Rhodes' pond (now known as Corbin's pond) 
on the edge of the city and lay mains to 
connect the pond with the works. A bond 
of ^25,000 was given the city as an indem- 
nity against possible damages, and a system 
was laid, insuring the company against pos- 
sibility of a water famine. In fact, it has 
since then come to the relief of the city in 
time of need, although the magnificent water 
system provided for the city by the fore- 
thought of Philip Corbin and other public 
spirited citizens renders it safe from trouble 
in this regard for many years. 

With its own water system, it only 
needed a Corbin fire department to give the 
factory an independent means for protection 
against fire. Slight blazes had occurred at in- 
tervals, always being extinguished without 
great loss, but the disastrous effects that would 




MOLDER POURING IRON 



74 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

follow a fire of any magnitude in the big plant, coupled with the increased liability 
resulting from the increase in number of men and multiplication of processes, 
induced the company to inaugurate a private fire system. Standpipes were 
placed through the buildings, with hose arranged to cover all the floor space; 
a powerful fire pump was provided; hydrants were set at frequent intervals 
about the buildings- and hose carriages were provided, with a complete equip- 
ment for each. A fire alarm system with call boxes upon every floor was put 
in place and two separate fire companies in the shops organized and drilled. 
This department has, upon a number of occasions, rendered valuable service, 
saving loss and preventing conflagrations from becoming general where a force 
of men less intimately acquainted with the premises and with an equipment 
brought in from outside could not hope to accomplish as much. Automatic 
sprinklers are now placed throughout the factory, with sprinkler heads at inter- 
vals of ten feet. A stream can be thrown from the ground onto or over any 
building on the premises. Seventeen streams can be thrown at once upon a fire 
and the pumping stations can deliver over 3,500 gallons of water per minute. 

In 1 891, a small addition was made to the west end of the main building, 
to provide offices for the shippers and the estimating department. In 1893, 
the building on the west side of Orchard Street was extended to its present 
length. At the annual meeting in 1892 the office of vice-president was created 
and Mr. Andrew Corbin elected to fill it, thus being officially associated 
with his brother in the management of the business, as he had been in reality 
for many years. 

The need for an office was urgent. More attention had been paid to 
properly housing the productive portion of the business than that of the man- 
agement, and the office force had long outgrown its quarters. As far back as 
1882 the directors had been authorized to erect an office building, and the 
matter had been a frequent topic of conversation. When the time came for 
building an office, Mr. Philip Corbin selected the site, directly in front of the 
main building, between the east and west wings and extending to the sidewalk 
on Park Street, and what was at the time the finest factory office in the country 
was built thereon by a prominent firm of New York architects. The entire 
interior was paneled in quartered oak. Separate offices were provided for the 
general officers and sales manager, and a directors' room furnished in a style that 
made it one of the show places of the locality. The general offices were sepa- 
rated into departments by divisions of paneled oak and plate glass and every 
good device known in the way of an aid to business was installed. It was an 

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office well worthy of the interests it housed. In June of 1893 ^^^ building 
was ready for occupancy. 

At the annual meeting of stockholders on the 27th of the following Feb- 
ruary there occurred one of those incidents which make life pleasant and occur 
all too rarely. At the conclusion of the formal order of business, Mr. John 
B. Talcott reviewed briefly the history of the company as it had come within 
his knowledge as a director for forty years, attributing the growth and pros- 
perity of its business to the wise management of the president and founder, 
Philip Corbin, ending with a motion that a life-size portrait of Mr. Corbin be 
provided for the directors' room. The motion was warmly seconded by Mr. 
A. J. Sloper. Mr. Phihp Corbin deprecated the prominence given him in the 
premises and in turn placed the credit upon his co-workers, Andrew Corbin, 
his brother, and John M. Spring, the superintendent. The stockholders, in 
accordance with Mr. Corbin's wish, included these gentlemen in his motion and 
the portraits were ordered procured. In the directors' meeting following, 
Charles H. Parsons, J. B. Talcott, and Charles E. Wetmore 
were made a committee to take the matter in charge. Artist 
A. J. Conant of New York was engaged to paint the pictures, 
which are marvelous in their fidelity to the originals and 

in their life-like coloring. They now 
hang upon the walls of the directors' room 
and those who once see them do not 
forget them. 

The changes that had taken place in 
the builders' hardware business between 
the issuance of the general catalogue of 
1885 and the one of 1895 ^^^^ following 
were many. The character of the orna- 
mentation of the house trimmings had 
undergone a transformation, and these 
goods were now classified according to 
school of design. The irregular out- 
Hnes had nearly disappeared; new 
articles had been added, such as hinge 
plates, bar sash lifts, and push but- 
tons, and, in fact, the business had 
arrived at about the basis upon which 




BRASS HOLDER POURING 



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ELECTROPLATER 



it stands to-day, except for the natural expan- 
sion of the past nine years of growth. Pin- 
tumbler locks had been added with the dis- 
tinguishing trade-mark or name of " Har- 
vard." The Gilfillan door check had been 
introduced and was being superseded by 
the Corbin check, invented by Cromwell 
O. Case, master mechanic of the Corbin 
factories. This check, with its double pis- 
ton arrangement and consequent lessened 
friction, its ease of adjustment and perfect 
working qualities has never been equaled, 
and is the standard in the market to-day. 
Locks showed a clearer division into types 
with different functions for different styles 
of doors, indicating a close study of the 
adaptability of the goods to the various 
requirements. 

In 1893, land was secured on the north side of Park Street 
and fronting the present factory, and in 1895 work was begun upon the largest 
single building operation that had as yet been undertaken. In 1896, the 
present north-side plant was finished. The top story of the main building 
is occupied by an iron foundry, with floor space for ten thousand flasks. 
The placing of a foundry of this character in such an elevated position is an 
innovation in factory practice which has proven of value. The goods are thus 
begun at the top of the factory and progress with a minimum of handling 
from one floor down to the next until they arrive at the packing and shipping 
rooms on the ground floor. A bridge across Park Street connects the north- 
side building with the main factory, and a tunnel beneath the street affords 
another means of communication. 

The electric plant of the factory is also located on the north side of the 
street. The lighting plant contains over 175 arc and 4,000 incandescent Hghts 
and has capacity for a larger number if needed. At the time when the first 
machines were installed, the Thomson-Houston works were located in New 
Britain, this industry being then in its infancy. A thirty arc light machine built 
here is still running and giving satisfactory service. It has been found easier 
and cheaper to use electricity in some portions of the Corbin plant, where steam 

11 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 




SALESMEN 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

could not be carried without loss of efficiency, and motors are set in various 
places where needed, and run by electricity generated in the company's plant. 

In 1896, A. S. Chase, a director of the company, died, and resolutions 
expressive of his associates' regrets were passed and recorded. 

At the directors' meeting in 1897, immediately following the stockholders' 
meeting, Mr. C. E. Wetmore, now treasurer of the company, was elected 
director to fill the vacancy created by the death of Mr. Chase. Mr. Wetmore 
first entered the Corbin office as a boy in April of 1871, later having charge 
of the invoices. When the estimating department was created in 1874, with 
Willis G. Lamb in charge, Mr. Wetmore was transferred to it, later succeeding 
to its management in 1880, when Mr. Lamb left to engage in silver mining. 
Mr. Wetmore was in charge of this department at the time of his election as 
secretary, but in 1896 he was made superintendent, it being evident that Mr. 
Spring would never recover from his illness, and turned over the estimating 
department to Mr. Willis H. DeWolfe, the present assistant secretary, who 
has been identified with it since first entering the company's employ in 1889. 

Thus Mr. Wetmore has been identified with the company from boyhood, 
and is an expert in all departments — both in estimating costs and in manufac- 
turing, and during the summer of 1903 was promoted by a vote of the 
directors to the responsible position of treasurer of the corporation, a position 
which he ably fills at the present time. 

Previous to this time the secretary of P. & F. Corbin had also served as 
secretary of the Corbin Cabinet Lock Co., but Mr. George W. Corbin was 
now made secretary of this latter company. 

In this same year (1897) Mr. W. S. Judd, who had charge of the order 
department, resigned to become New Britain's postmaster, and C. B. Parsons, 
a son of Mr. C. H. Parsons, succeeded him. He still is at the head of this 
department, which has grown to several times its former size in the past eight 
years. New systems for caring for the work have been devised and the depart- 
ment has been organized on a scale that enables it to care for the immense 
volume of detail it is required to handle. 

In addition to his duties in the order department, Mr. C. B. Parsons has 
been able to assist his father in the sales department, and has an intimate 
knowledge of the complicated line of goods and their sale and use which is 
of constantly-increasing value to the company. 

In 1898, two changes were made in the line of goods, the results of which 
are so far-reaching and so important that their full effect cannot, at the present, 

79 



HISTORY 



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be fully determined. One of these consisted in improvements in the Harvard 
pin-tumbler locks; first, by introducing ball bearings to eliminate friction, arid 
second, by placing two concentric locking cylinders within a single shell, giving 
the effect of two separate locks in one, permitting the use of two keys with 
different changes and vastly multiplying the capability of the locks in master- 
keying. The use of the master-key has become so general in buildings with 
several tenants that this invention is of constantly -increasing value. 

The other invention is even more important. Locks have been made for 
thousands of years, and constant efforts have been made to improve them, but 
so far as the recorded history of the art of locksmithing tells, all improvements 
^^^^^K have come gradually and the evolution of a new idea 

^^■BP* could be traced by a series of changes from the old 

!■■■*• .-i^P^K to the new condition. It remained for Hon. Byron 

Phelps, former mayor of Seattle, Washington, and 
ex-treasurer of the county, to evolve a new type of 
lock and to bring it forth complete, with the generic 
idea fully developed and the form established. In 
June, 1898, he came to P. & F. Corbin from across 
the country to find a manufacturer to produce his 
device. The value of the new lock was at once rec- 
ognized and the control of the invention secured. 

In effect, the invention consists in a lock set, in 
which all the parts, including knobs and escutcheons, 
are attached firmly to a single frame, all parts being 
connected at the factory, and not necessarily disturbed 
thereafter. Incidentally, as a result of this method of lock-construction, a 
number of valuable features are incorporated in these "Unit" locks, among 
them being the removal of the key-work to the knob, the use of an original 
locking-cam on the inside knob shank, a close fitting adjustment and a simplicity 
in construction, that give an even, easy firmness of action that can be likened 
to nothing but a safe lock. 

Locks of this type are made with functions to suit all purposes, and the 
Unit principle is gradually being extended to cover the entire field of lock- 
making. Its influence can hardly be overestimated at this time. It is certainly 
revolutionary in character and destined to create a new epoch in the manufacture 
of locks. The favor with which the Unit lock is received may be judged from 
the fact that it has the approval of every architect who has investigated it; has 

80 




BYRON PHELPS 




CHARLES M. JARVIS, 

FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT 

AMERICAN HARDWARE CORPORATION 



HISTORY 



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been specified for all the buildings 
of prominence recently constructed 
where the best of hardware was re- 
quired, and is used upon fine struc- 
tures in every city of the Union. 
Mr. Phelps holds twenty patents in 
the United States, covering different 
features of the Unit lock, as well as 
patents in France, England, and 
Germany. 

In 1 899, a large wing was added 
to the building on the west side of 
Orchard Street, to relieve the con- 
gested condition of many of the 
departments. In 1900, a larger ad- 
dition was built on the east side of 
Orchard Street, with an ell 




on 



BUILDING OPERATIONS 



Pearl Street, to give the screw department room it very much needed. Both 
of these buildings were filled immediately upon completion and the clamor arose 
for more space to provide accommodations for increased facilities. The fac- 
tory was months behind its orders, with every portion of the immense plant 
working to its fullest capacity. The demand for Corbin goods had grown 
faster than the ability to produce them, despite every effort to keep pace with 
the orders. The management of the company had its burdens greatly 
increased by this condition of affairs, and assistance was sought. The long- 
continued illness of Mr. Andrew Corbin, who had general charge of the 
mechanical department, threw a double load upon the superintendent, 
Mr. Wetmore, and in October, 1900, Mr. W, T. Hartman, the present 
superintendent, was appointed as his assistant, to attend to the detail of the 
manufacture of goods and urge through to completion the plans for expansion 
and improvement, Mr. Wetmore caring for the larger details and the manufac- 
turing policy. Mr. Hartman was, prior to this time, foreman of the lock room, 
where he had been engaged for twenty-seven years, and his experience in hand- 
ling a large force of men and in getting the largest results with the least loss 
of time and energy made him an unusually efficient man for such a position, 
and gave him an excellent training for his present duties as superintendent. 
On March 13, 1901, Mr. Charles Glover was made a director of the P. & F. 

83 



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Corbin company, to fill the place left vacant by the death of James Bolter 
of Hartford, thus adding to the directorate of the company another of the 
men actively engaged in its development. Both Philip and Andrew Corbin 
recognized that the time had come when they must have an associate in the 
management of the business who could plan with them for the extension of 
the business on a scale commensurate with its needs and take upon his shoulders 
the execution of the work. Consequently, when, in the summer of 1901, 
Charles Maples Jarvis of Berlin, Conn., resigned his position as vice-president 
of the American Bridge Co., and was thus free to consider another business 
connection, they sought his assistance. He was accordingly made the vice- 
president of the company, becoming actively connected with it on September 
15, 1901, and, with his advent and the execution of plans promulgated by him 
or executed by the management with his aid, P. & F. Corbin entered upon a 
new epoch in its history. 

Mr. Jarvis was born in Deposit, N. Y., April 6, 1856. He was educated 
in the public schools of Binghamton, N. Y., where his parents moved when he 
was two years old, and later graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School of 

Yale University, having completed a course of 
civil engineering. From this time he was 
associated with the Berlin Iron Bridge Co. 
of East Berlin, Conn., first as a civil 
engineer and later as presi- 
dent of the company. 
When the Ameri- 
can Bridge Co. 
purchased the 
f / Berlin company, 

Mr. Jarvis was 
made vice-presi- 
dent of the large 
corporation and 
placed in charge 
of the operating 
department. This 
office he resigned 
just before be- 
coming identified 




LOCKSMITH AT WORK 



84 



HISTORY 



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with P. & F. Corbin. The position assumed by Mr. 
Jarvis in P. & F. Corbin's management is one for which 
his talents and previous training pecuharly fit 
him. He is accustomed to handhng the organ- 
ization of commercial forces upon a large scale 
and the creation of systems and methods to 
produce the largest results with the least 
waste of movement. The advanced methods 
of modern business find in him an earnest 
advocate, and many of the changes that have 
occurred since his connection with the company 
are directly traceable to him. 

Another new building was planned, to be 
erected on the site of the brass foundry built 
in 1874, the size of the building to be approx- 
imately 200 X 60 feet and seven stories in height. 
Heretofore all the buildings had been built with 
heavy brick walls, strong enough to sustain the 
weight of the floors, some of them being as thick 
as thirty-six inches. In this new building, it was decided 
to use a steel frame with light walls, after the fashion of the modern sky- 
scraper, and with large windows to give all the 
light possible. This building has been completed 
and is fully occupied. It is of slow-burning con- 
struction throughout, equipped with rapid eleva- 
tors and modern in every detail. The top floor is 
used as a brass foundry, equipped with the most 
modern appliances. The additional space allowed 
a rearrangement of the departments in the main 
portion of the plant, which relieved the congestion, 
and has given every department room enough to 
carry on its work in comfort. 

New times, new methods, new manners ! 
There had been for several years occasional 
rumors of combinations of hardware manufac- 
turers, which had been as regularly denied, until 
it was generally believed that P. & F. Corbin would 





85 



GRINDING AND POLISHING 



HISTORY 



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not entertain any proposition that would identify with this company the interests 
of any other. Therefore, when the announcement was made in the New 
Britain papers of February 24, 1902, that preparations were being made to 
merge P. & F. Corbin and the Russell & Erwin Manufacturing Company into 
one company, to be known as the American Hardware Corporation, the news 
occasioned much comment. Of all the possible combinations, this one seemed 
to the average New Britain citizen the least likely to occur, for the memory of 
old rivalries were still strong, but in reality it was the most reasonable of 
arrangements. Two immense plants, making goods of the same general 
character, can naturally be most economically managed by a single governing 
body; the advantage of combining the purchases to get the benefit of large 
quantities is manifest, the universal confidence in Philip Corbin's sagacity and 
business foresight, born of a long period of regular dividends to stockholders, 
in good times and bad, and the sight of the rapidly-growing factory — all 
combined to give the new movement favor with those interested- — especially 
in view of the fact that when carefully analyzed it was found that the stock 
of the two concerns was owned very largely by the same people. Conse- 
quently, on March 13, 1902, the American Hardware Corporation was organ- 
ized, this corporation owning every share of stock of P. & F. Corbin and the 
Russell & Erwin Manufacturing Company. The American Hardware Cor- 
poration is not a manufacturing corporation. It is simply a holding com- 
pany and controls the management of both corporations; at the same 

time, each corpora- 
tion has its own offi- 
cers and directors 
and operates as a 
separate and inde- 
pendent plant cor- 
poration, as responsi- 
ble to its customers 
to-day as it ever 
was. 

An important 
factor in the forma- 
tion of the new 
company was the 
universal confidence 




PACKING GOODS 



86 




I \ 



, ^:^l^v \ 




CHARLES GLOVER, 

PRESIDENT 

CORBIN SCREW CORPORATION 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

in the management of Philip Corbin, created by the success of the various 
enterprises with which he was associated, and the esteem in which he is held 
by his townspeople, by whom the greater portion of the stock of the two 
companies was owned. It was felt that any movement endorsed by Philip Cor- 
bin, and which he was_ willing to identify so closely with the interests of P. & F. 
Corbin, the company for the welfare of which he had spent his life, must be 
worthy of support, and it only needed Philip Corbin's consent to become 
the president to make it an extremely desirable move. The unanimity 
with which the stockholders of the two companies united to form the American 
Hardware Corporation was a personal endorsement of Mr. Philip Corbin's 
business career. 

While the American Hardware Corporation governs the general policy of 
the constituent companies and directs its lines of activity, it leaves the details 
of the business to the department managers, just as under the old regime, and 
the customers thus get from P. & F. Corbin the same service and the same 
goods independent of any outside interference with trade relations. P. & F. 
Corbin's organization remains intact, with the same board of directors that 
it had before the American Hardware Corporation was formed. 

At the annual stockholders' meeting on February 25, 1902, the offices of 
first vice-president, second vice-president, and assistant treasurer were created. 
Mr. Jarvis was made a director of the company, Mr. A. N. Abbe, purchasing 
agent for P. & F. Corbin, was also made a director, his intimate knowledge 
of the business making him a valuable addition to the governing board of the 
company. 

Mr. Abbe has been connected with P. & F. Corbin since 1887, coming to 
New Britain from Meriden, where he had been engaged in the hardware busi- 
ness. At first he assisted in the bookkeeping, but was soon transferred to the 
purchasing department, where his knowledge of goods, prices, market tenden- 
cies and sources of supply were made of such value that later he was given 
charge of the purchases of all supplies and materials used. He has always 
taken a keen interest in the business in all its branches and his election as 
director was simply a fitting recognition of the value of his aid and advice. In 
July of 1902 he was made the purchasing agent of the American Hardware 
Corporation and has since added to his other duties those of traffic manager of 
that corporation and of secretary and plant manager of P. & F. Corbin. 

On August 8, 1902, the general offices of P. & F. Corbin were gutted by 
fire, the factory fire companies succeeding, with great effort, in confining the 

89 



HISTORY 



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C O R B I N 



damage to this portion of the plant. It being vacation time, the officers of the 
company were absent, but Mr. Abbe took the matter in hand and in three 
days the entire interior of the office was rebuilt, painted, fitted with desks made 
in the factory joinery and the office force was at work in the old quarters. 
This quick action in an emergency is typical of the Corbin management. In 
May of the same year a wooden brass foundry burned, entailing a loss of 
several thousands of dollars. The need for castings was very great and every 

possible means was 
brought to bear to 
repair the damage, 
so that forty-eight 
hours after the fire 
the molders were 
back in their old 
quarters, "pouring 
off" the melted 
brass and bronze, with 
the carpenters working 
above and around them, 
finishing the new walls. In 
both instances gangs of men were at work 
tearing out the debris before the steam from the embers had ceased to rise, 
and the work went on without cessation until the damage was repaired. The 
same care is exercised at all times to see that the operating department has no 
hindrance in the production of goods, for with the immense trade and the 
rapid increase in business the importance of employing the full productive 
capacity is felt by all. 

The greatest need of P. & F. Corbin in 1902 was increased foundry 
facilities to provide castings for the enlarged factory. Accordingly, on 
September 9th, the directors empowered the management to build an iron 
foundry, 60 x 400 feet, upon the "Annex " property on Stanley Street. The 
work was pushed with all the speed possible and a large force of men is now 
employed in a commodious foundry equipped with the most modern devices. 

On May 2, 1903, the Corbin Screw Corporation was organized as a sub- 
sidiary company of the American Hardware Corporation, to take charge of the 
manufacture of screws and screw products in the screw plants formerly belong- 
ing to P. & F. Corbin and the Russell & Erwin Manufacturing Company. 

90 




SHIPPING GOODS 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

Both of these companies had large screw manufacturing departments which had 
been in operation for a Httle more than twenty-five years, and the industry had 
grown so important that it was thought best to sell the two plants to a new 
company who could specialize this business, and give it the separate and dis- 
tinct attention its importance warranted and that would be best conducive to its 
growth. On July i, 1903, the new company came into possession of the New 
Britain screw-making plant of P. & F. Corbin and the screw plants of Russell 
& Erwin Manufacturing Co., in New Britain, Conn., and Dayton, Ohio, and 
assumed charge of the screw business conducted therein. 

Mr. Charles Glover, a director of P. & F. Corbin, and formerly the man- 
ager of their screw department, is the president of this new corporation. 

In 1876, when P. & F. Corbin decided to make the wood screws used with 
their goods, they purchased some screw machines which had formerly been used 
by Colter & Co., another Connecticut firm, the outfit consisting of sixteen 
machines. Mr. Glover, who was at that time working for the National Screw 
Company of Hartford, was engaged to take charge of these machines and con- 
duct the manufacture of screws. The machines not proving satisfactory, Mr. 
Glover invented others to replace them, the first one being put in operation in 
1877. Up to 1883, the screw department occupied quarters in the main build- 
ing, but in 1884 it was moved to the east side of Park Street, next to the 
quarters occupied by the Corbin Cabinet Lock Co., where it has since remained. 

On June 1 1, 1903, the Corbin Motor Vehicle Corporation was incorporated, 
to make motor vehicles at the Russell & Erwin plant of the American Hard- 
ware Corporation. Of this new company Philip Corbin is the president and 
Charles M. Jarvis the vice-president. A full list of the officers is given 
elsewhere. 

Here ends this chronicle of the history of P. & F. Corbin, upon the fiftieth 
anniversary of the incorporation of the company. It is not the province of a 
historian to forecast the future, and, indeed, who can tell what the future may hold? 
The changes that have occurred in the past two or three years have materially 
altered the scope and the plan of the P. & F. Corbin's operations, and opened 
new avenues for extension and growth, of which full advantage will doubtless be 
taken, in accordance with the Corbin method for the past half-century, and he 
who runs will be able to read in passing events the story of the years to come. 

What is the secret of P. & F. Corbin's growth and success ? Opinions 
vary. Their associates all unite in saying that to Philip and Andrew Corbin, 
who have shouldered the responsibility and carried the burden of the manage- 

91 




ART HARDWARE 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

ment of the business, the credit should be ascribed ; that the Corbin factories, 
the Corbin goods, the Corbin reputation and high standing in the markets are 
a monument to their abihty as leaders and business men ; Philip Corbin depre- 
cates such statements and gives to his associates and subordinates who have 
executed the projects decided upon the credit they would give to him. The fact 
remains, that from th"e first inception of the business to the present day, Philip 
Corbin has been its active manager, carrying at some periods burdens of responsi- 
bility that it now seems incredible for one man to bear, and throughout all this 
time his will has been the directing force in the company's affairs. It is equally 
true that for thirty-two years his brother Andrew has stood at his side and that 
the two have worked with perfect unanimity in furthering P. & F. Corbin's 
interests, and that with the coming of Charles M. Jarvis the pace of progres- 
sion has been wonderfully accelerated and new avenues opened. 

It is also true that Philip Corbin has the faculty, common to men who are 
born to be leaders, of choosing the best men for the various work, and of 
entrusting them with the details of its execution and holding them responsible 
for results. If there are more potent factors than these they have escaped the 
notice of the writer of these pages. The old truism of " Given the man and the 
hour and all things are possible" is as true here as it always has been. 

An analysis of the Corbin policy gives as the leading characteristics : 

The development of every line to its fullest extent. 

The introduction of new articles as soon as their value is demonstrated. 

The manufacture of goods a little better than they need to be, and of consid- 
ering their customers' best interests as well as their own. 

The creation of values by turning into the business for its development the 
money earned therein. 

A faith in the future that has resulted in plans on a large scale for needs 
yet to rise. 

What this policy has wrought in the past we have seen; what it will bring 
forth in the future we shall know in due time. May its promulgation long 
continue at the hands of its originator, Mr. Philip Corbin ! 



93 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 




NEW YORK SALESMEN 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

P. & F. CORBIN, New York, 1 854-1 897. 
P. & F. CORBIN, of New York, 1 897-1 904. 

The New York sales office of P. & F. Corbin was established in 1854, 
soon after the incorporation of the company, Mr. Frank Corbin leaving the 
New Britain office to assume charge. 

A store was opened at No. 13 Gold Street, in what was then the heart of the 
hardware district, Frank Corbin assuming charge, assisted by his brother, George 
S. Corbin, then a lad. A stock of goods was carried from which shipments 
were made to customers, and all the trade outside of New England was cared 
for from this store, it thus becoming the principal sales center of the company. 

At the beginning, a show case perhaps seven feet square sufficed to display 
a complete line of samples of the Corbin goods. Two years later, the assort- 
ment had grown to fill show cases thirty feet in length. 

Shortly before the Civil War began there was an exodus of the hardware 
trade to Beekman Street. At about the same time Frank Corbin left the 
company to embark in a different line of business, and in i860 Andrew 
Corbin succeeded to the management of the store. In 1862, in conjunction 
with the Stanley Works, the first floor and basement of No. 57 Beekman 
Street were leased and the business was transferred to the new quarters. 

At the close of the war, in 1865, it was found necessary to secure larger 
quarters, and the business was removed to No. 55 Beekman Street. 

In 1872, Andrew Corbin left New York to assume the general manage- 
ment of the factory at New Britain, and George S. Corbin became the manager 
of the New York store, where he remained until his transfer later to the Phila- 
delphia warehouse. 

On May i, 1882, P. & F. Corbin established offices at Nos. 24-26 Mur- 
ray Street, and on November i, 1897, were incorporated under the laws of the 
State of New York. On January i, 1899, the New York office of P. & F. 
Corbin was placed in charge of William Bishop, who formerly was with 
Russell & Erwin Mfg. Co. The New York warehouse of P. & F. Corbin is 
now located at 11, 13, and 15 Murray Street, and has charge of a very large 
section of territory, including all foreign business, and the responsibility of the 
management of this office is large, and Mr. Bishop has shown himself, by his 
energetic policy and the popularity with which he is regarded by the trade, as 
the right man in the right place — the master of the situation. 



95 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBI 



N 




PHILADELPHIA SALESMEN 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

P. & F. CORBIN, PHILADELPHIA. 

The Philadelphia sales rooms of P. & F. Corbin are located at 525 Market 
Street, in the heart of the business center of the city, and within a mile of 
seven-eighths of the local hardware dealers. It is within four blocks of the city 
hall, two squares from the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Station, and a ten 
minutes' walk from terminal station of the Pennsylvania Railroad. 

This branch was established in 1892 by Mr. George S. Corbin, who had 
formerly been connected with P. & F. Corbin's New York store. At this time 
he was in ill health, and the detail of the work connected with the inauguration 
of the new store fell upon Mr. M. S. Wadsworth, a salesman who visited the 
large cities in Pennsylvania, together with Baltimore and Washington, and 
thus became naturally associated with the Philadelphia store. The force at 
that time consisted of manager Geo. S. Corbin, three salesmen, and a stenog- 
rapher. It was not until a year later that the store was fully stocked with 
goods, and at this time (July, 1893) the practice of billing Philadelphia sales 
from the New Britain office was discontinued, the store keeping its own ac- 
counts and making its own collections. 

In December of 1893, Mr. Wadsworth died, and J. D. Brainerd, the 
present manager, went to Philadelphia to assist Mr. Corbin, whom he succeeded 
upon Mr. Corbin's death in 1899. His illness was of very short duration, 
being congestion of the lungs resulting from a cold. 

In July, 1 901, the second floor of the building was rented to give room for 
a larger stock of goods. At this time, and up to January of 1902, P. & F. 
Corbin had managed the Philadelphia sales of the Corbin Cabinet Lock Co.'s 
goods in connection with their own, but at this time Mr. E. C. Griswold 
assumed charge of the Corbin Cabinet Lock Co.'s interests. 

The stock of goods carried is large in quantity, and varied in assortment, 
to answer the needs of the best local trade as well as the demand for cheaper 
goods, and to supply the jobbers of the territory covered from this point. A 
full line of the Corbin Screw Corporation's products is also carried in stock 
and sold. The offices, sample rooms, and warerooms are attractively 
furnished and completely fitted out with appliances for conducting business in 
the most approved manner. 



97 




CHICAGO SALESMEN 



HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF P. & F. CORBIN 

P. & F. CORBIN, CHICAGO, ILL. 

The establishment of a sales depot in Chicago was made to better serve the 
interests of the company's customers in that city and contiguous territory. 
Prior to the time of the formal opening of a Western branch store, a sample 
room had been fitted out for Mr. W. G. Miller,, the representative in Chicago 
and the Northwest, and finding that this departure brought an increased trade 
and a more intimate acquaintance with the goods on the part of the Chicago 
architects and dealers, it was decided to provide increased facilities for local 
representation. Accordingly, in September, 1887, the store room at No. 63 
East Washington Street was leased, an enlarged sample room with a suitable 
ofiice was equipped, and a stock of staple goods for local needs was provided. 
Mr. John R. Scott (now deceased) was engaged to assist Mr. Miller in the 
management. In 1889, Mr. H. C. M. Thomson succeeded both these 
gentlemen, and assumed the management of the branch. 

From the beginnmg, the business at the Chicago store showed a steady 
increase. At first, its operations were confined to the city of Chicago, but, in 
1889, its field was enlarged by the addition of a number of contiguous cities 
directly tributary to Chicago. 

In 1894, the present quarters at Nos. 104-106 Lake Street were leased and 
an outfit was provided commensurate with the importance of the interests 
represented. 

The stock of goods has grown with the needs of the territory, and includes 
practically everything in the way of Corbin goods needed for buildings of all 
kinds. 

In 1889, Mr. W. C. Stephens was engaged to take charge of the city sales, 
and in 1901 succeeded Mr. Thomson in the management of the store. Mr. 
Stephens is aggressive in policy and thorough in his methods, and admirably 
fitted for carrying out the Corbin policy for the extension of the business. 

In many important respects, the Chicago store and its field differ from those 
of the other branches. Its distance from the main ofiice throws its manage- 
ment more upon its own resources and necessitates the carrying of a more 
extended line of samples and of stock from which to fill orders. A corps of 
jobbing salesmen is employed, and territory regularly and carefully covered. 
L.ofC. 



99 



The American Hardware Corporation 



Officers. 



First Vice-President, 
Charles M. Jarvis. 

Treasurer, 
Andrew J. Sloper. 

Secretary, 
Charles E. Wetmore. 



President, 
Philip Corbin, 



Second Vice-President, 
Howard S. Hart. 

Assistant Treasurer, 
Charles H. Parsons. 

Assistant Secretary, 
Charles B. Parsons. 



Directors. 



Philip Corbin, 
Andrew Corbin, 
Charles M, Jarvis, 
Andrew J. Sloper, 



Charles H. Parsons, 
Charles Glover, 
Howard S. Hart, 
Sylvester C. Dunham, 



Frederick P. Wilcox. 



lOO 



p. & F. CoRBIN. 



Officers, 



First Vice-President, 
Andrew Corbin. 



President, 
Philip Corbin. 



Second Vice-President, 
Charles H. Parsons. 



Treasurer, 
Charles E. Wetmore. 



Assistant Treasurer, 
Edward L. Prior. 



Secretary, 
Albert N. Abbe. 



Assistant Secretary, 
Willis H. De Wolfe. 



Directors. 



Philip Corbin, 
Andrew Corbin, 
John B. Talcott, 
Charles G. Miller, 



Charles H. Parsons, 
Charles Glover, 
Charles E. Wetmore, 
Charles M. Jarvis, 



Albert N. Abbe. 



lOI 



Russell & Erwin Manufacturing Co. 

Officers. 

President, 
Howard S. Hart. 

Vice-President, Treasurer, 

Benjamin A. Hawley. Isaac D. Russell. 

Assistant Treasurer, 
Joel H. Van Newkirk. 

Secretary, 
Theodore E. Smith. 



Directors. 

Andrew J. Sloper, Benjamin A. Hawley, 

Frank L. Hungerford, Isaac D. Russell, 

Charles E. Mitchell, Theodore E. Smith, 

Howard S. Hart, Clarence A. Earl, 

Joel H. Van Newkirk. 



I02 



The Corbin Screw Corporation. 



Officer 



Vice-President, 
Clarence A. Earl. 



President. 
Charles Glover. 



Assistant Secretary, 
William J. Surre. 



Treasurer and Secretary, 
Theodore E. Smith. 



Directors. 



Philip Corbin, 
Charles M. Jarvis, 
Charles Glover, 
Howard S. Hart, 



Theodore E. Smith, 
Charles H. Parsons, 
Benjamin A. Hawley, 
Clarence A. Earl, 



Andrew Corbin. 



103 



CoRBiN Cabinet Lock Co. 
Officers. 

President and Treasurer, 
Philip Corbin. 



First Vice-President, 
Andrew Corbin. 



Second Vice-President, 
Charles M. Jarvis. 



Secretary, 
George W. Corbin. 



Directors. 



Philip Corbin, 
Andrew Corbin, 
George W. Corbin, 
Albert F. Corbin, 



Charles M. Jarvis, 
Charles Glover, 
Darius Miller, 
John B. Talcott, 



Charles G. Miller. 



104 



The Corbin Motor Vehicle Corporation 

Officers. 

President, 
Philip Corbin. 

Vice-President, Treasurer, 

Charles M. Jarvis. Howard S. Hart. 

Secretary and Assistant Treasurer, 
Paul P. Wilcox. 



Directors. 

Philip Corbin, Paul P. Wilcox, 

Charles M. Jarvis, Epaphroditus Plck, 

K^owARD S. Hart, Andrew J. Sloper, 

Charles Glover, Robert C. Mitchell, 

Frederick N. Manross. 



105 




THE DAY'S WORK DONE 




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